LONDON
\nCheers greeted Prince Harry and his wife Meghan outside St Paul\u2019s Cathedral on Friday as they made their first public appearance in Britain for two years.
\nBut opinions were split among the throng of fans waiting at the London landmark to catch a glimpse of the royals, reflecting a generational divide.
\nThe couple\u2019s return for Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s Platinum Jubilee celebrations was always going to be watched closely as a test of their popularity. They stood down as working royals in 2020 and settled in California, and their very public criticisms since have outraged fans of the monarchy.
\n\u201cThey got a really big cheer,\u201d said Ana, a 23-year-old from Mexico studying in the UK, who was watching with a friend.
\nOn Thursday, the couple kept a low profile at the Trooping the Colour parade, which began festivities to mark the queen\u2019s record-breaking 70-year reign.
\nBut Ana said the \u201cbackseat\u201d role was \u201cunfair\u201d. \u201cThey should all be treated the same,\u201d she said.
\n\u2018Old-fashioned\u2019
\nHarry\u2019s grandmother restricted appearances on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on Thursday to \u201cworking royals\u201d only. The St Paul\u2019s service was the Duke and Duchess of Sussex\u2019s only official participation in the four days of celebrations.
\n\u201cThey are part of the royal family,\u201d said Amy Thomas, 17, who travelled to London from northern England with her mother for the event.
\n\u201cThey should be able to do a bit of a different concept of what the royal family is now. I just think the presentation of the royal family is old-fashioned. They\u2019re just kind of stuck in their ways. Harry and stuff and all that went on. I think you can tell it needs to be dealt with differently.\u201d
\nThese opinions stood at odds with a YouGov poll published this week that suggested nearly two-thirds of Britons (63 per cent) viewed both Harry and Meghan negatively.
\nBut there is a generational gap. Among those aged 18 to 24, the couple are largely seen positively. Among the over-65s, more than 60pc hold a negative view. Gwyneth Cookson, 65, from Motherwell, near Glasgow in Scotland, said proudly she had shaken hands with Meghan at Edinburgh Castle. \u201cI\u2019m a fan,\u201d said Cookson, wearing a sparkly Union Jack badge. She was there with her daughter and grandson holding a toy corgi. \u201cHopefully there will be a wee reconciliation.\u201d
\n\u2018Not welcome\u2019
\nOther older royal watchers were noticeably chillier.
\n\u201cI\u2019m not really interested anymore,\u201d said Ruth Horsfield, from Lancashire in northwest England, who came to London on a pensioners\u2019 coach tour.
\n\u201cNothing against them but they\u2019ve got their own lives now. They don\u2019t feel part of it any more. They\u2019ve divested themselves of it really. I don\u2019t think they should make any money out of it,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cI think they\u2019re just gradually being forgotten about,\u201d added her friend Glynis Morgan from Yorkshire. \u201cAs long as they don\u2019t rake muck and do too much damage to the queen.\u201d
\nWearing a purple jubilee T-shirt and matching cap and a Swatch watch featuring the queen and a corgi, Coleen, from the Canadian city of Toronto where Meghan once lived, was clearly not a fan. \u201cI don\u2019t think she did anyone any favours,\u201d she said quietly. \u201cI think he picked the wrong wife.\u201d
\nSitting beside her, Lorraine Frame from Northern Ireland cut in: \u201cThey have their own agenda. \u201cThey\u2019re coming back because they\u2019re scared of missing something and they are not welcome. I certainly booed them.\u201d
\nWearing a Union Jack t-shirt and reading a newspaper royal supplement, she said she also came especially for the jubilee. \u201cI don\u2019t think they can be trusted because of their dealings with Netflix, what they may or may not say, and I think shame on them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON Cheers greeted Prince Harry and his wife Meghan outside St Paul\u2019s Cathedral on Friday as they made their first public appearance in Britain for two years. But opinions were split among the throng of fans waiting at the London landmark to catch a glimpse of the royals, reflecting a generational divide. The couple\u2019s return […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264585,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8149,8150,8085,8151],"class_list":{"0":"post-264580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-cheers","9":"tag-meghan","10":"tag-prince-harry","11":"tag-queen-jubilee"},"yoast_head":"\n