Americans turn out to celebrate ‘real-life fairy tale’
Partiers across the country marvel at unprecedented union
NEW YORK — From pubgoers in pajamas to merrymakers in finery at a posh hotel, Americans cheered and teared up Saturday as they watched Meghan Markle marry Prince Harry in a royal wedding with trans-Atlantic resonance.
If the U.K. and the U.S. have long enjoyed a “special relationship,” this gave it a whole new meaning.
“It was a real-life fairy tale,” said Erin Massa, 34, who watched at a Minneapolis pub. “If someone my age from America can suddenly become a princess, essentially, anything really is possible.”
In Burlington, N.J., Paula Jackson gasped when Markle emerged from the Rolls-Royce that brought her to St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, the British royals’ longtime home.
“I’m just so happy for her,” said Jackson. “She will be an example for our young, African-American women.”
Viewers acknowledged Markle’s beauty and naturalness. But they also marveled at the boundarybreaking union between the 33-year-old prince who has been open about how grief shadowed his life for decades after the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana, and the 36-year-old American actress who has spoken of coming to terms with her biracial identity as the daughter of a black mother and white father.
Some viewers wiped away tears as they watched the wedding from Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles, Markle’s alma mater.
“It’s all my family can talk about,” said 15-year-old sophomore Daniella Bueno, who got up at 3 a.m. to join dozens of students, parents and staffers for the event. “She’s representing our school in such a beautiful way.”
If there was a certain historical irony in Americans celebrating British royalty nearly 242 years after the Declaration of Independence, it had little sway Saturday over Americans who say they were simply rallying around love.