LONDON — Pandemic lockdowns and lack of opportunity drove 24-year-old drama school graduate Sarah Evans back to her family home in small-town Wales. In the general store where she works, the subject of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the now California-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex, sparks heated arguments with an older clientele.
There has long been a generational divide in Britain over the role of the royal family. But the couple’s explosive interview this month with Oprah Winfrey cast those age-based differences in sharp relief, a rift that some believe could point to eventual troubles for the thousand-year-old monarchy.
Britons as a whole strongly support the institution of the monarchy, with about two-thirds in favor of maintaining it, according to a YouGov poll last week. Among those age 18 to 24, though, that backing falls to less than half.
