LIZ JONES: I don't blame cynics for not buying Harry Styles and Zoe Kravitz as a couple. She's landed a man millions lust over, yet she always looks so inexplicably, relentlessly miserable... I know what's really going on

Ever since Zoe Kravitz stepped out in New York with a ten-carat diamond engagement ring in April, after only eight months of dating Harry Styles, their relationship has been shrouded in scepticism.

For one thing, many of Harry's fans have been quick to note that Zoe always appears so inexplicably, relentlessly miserable.

Most women would be cock-a-hoop to be engaged to Harry Styles, a young man who is not only talented and wealthy but also seems genuinely lovely.

He would jog from his home in Hampstead Heath to Wembley Stadium, where he played 12 sold-out shows in June and July. No need for bodyguards.

He is always stopping his concerts to help worried fans locate a lost friend or child. He wears shorts without looking ridiculous. He can knot a tie. He is unafraid of his feminine side, and dancing. No wonder everyone loves him.

So, can you really blame Harry's fans for questioning his relationship, which has seemed to move so very fast, and which doesn't appear, at least on a surface level, to be a happily ever after?

Especially when, after looking through old pictures of Harry with previous partners – from pop star Taylor Swift to actress Olivia Wilde – it's hard not to see a stark contrast. With his exes, Harry was all wholesome, straightforward smiles. He often mirrored his partners, as if he were play-dating.

Take those old pictures of Harry and Taylor, who dated for less than a year between 2012 and 2013. They look like two happy hipsters in beanies, knitted scarves and lace-up boots.

And with actress Olivia Wilde, who starred alongside Harry in Don't Worry Darling in 2022, the couple were all giggles and grins.

So why do Zoe and Harry always look too cool for school – even downright miserable – together?

First of all, with Zoe it's a different story. She's deeper. She isn't an all-American blonde, she really is effortlessly cool and stylish, the moody daughter of rock royalty Lenny Kravitz, which surely impressed Harry. Throughout the course of their relationship, Harry's more earnest side has emerged.

Zoe has introduced Harry to the circles of Hollywood's elites and their love of wellness and veganism, meaning he abandoned A-list partying and has taken up exercise, committing to running daily (he loved to run in his early twenties, but says he never ate properly, or looked after his body) and has even completed two marathons.

Meanwhile, she is a woman with success in her own right – she's starred in The Batman and High Fidelity, the hit drama Big Little Lies, as well as being the face of YSL's Black Opium. She also writes and directs – can you blame such a superstar for having a Resting B**** Face?

Perhaps it's because she's older than him (she is 37, he is 32). Or are the frown lines because she can't simply erase his exes by stealing his phone and blocking every woman on it, like a normal person? Can you imagine the sigh of relief when Taylor Swift tied the knot?

Harry was papped handing over his Electron card for a single cinema ticket to The Invite recently, which stars his ex Wilde. I can imagine Zoe's response: 'Olivia Wilde? Harry, I'm furious!'

Zoe has some impressive exes of her own though: she divorced actor Karl Glusman in 2021 after two years of marriage, and in 2023 was briefly engaged to Channing Tatum of Magic Mike fame. No doubt, for her, too, this relationship is a revelation: a man who is not a big lug, arrogant and macho, prickly and competitive, but someone infinitely kind and gentle.

Zoe has spoken openly about finding the public fixation on her relationship with Harry overwhelming. In an interview with British Vogue last year, she said: 'I'm aware of when it's happening, like when there are eight people outside my house, that's super uncomfortable,' she said.

'I'm aware of all the ingredients that create the thing we're talking about. But that doesn't mean you're necessarily okay with it.'

She's trying commendably hard to live a normal life: 'I'm going to walk and get my coffee and you're not going to take that away from me.'

In an interview with The Guardian, she revealed she finds even entering a shop difficult: she would feel self-conscious, knowing full well an awkward moment, a bad angle, would be endlessly dissected online. She knows she comes across as standoffish yet, heartbreakingly, she has also revealed she never got as much time with her father as she desperately wanted: the people around him would not allow that (her parents – her mother is Lisa Bonet of The Cosby Show fame – split up when she was two and divorced when she was five).

The good news is that Zoe seems strong enough to set boundaries for the both of them.

I imagine too she's actually the driving force behind Harry's normality, his tendency to walk through London carrying a coffee, alone; his kindness towards and appreciation of his fans.

And he in turn appreciates her worldliness, her intelligence. Her been there, done that, nothing-fazes-me attitude when his head could have been turned so easily by yes men and women.

He soaks up her dad's exquisite taste in interior design, his advice to take time off, alone, keep as much as he can to himself (Harry took the summer off in Italy before getting back on the world tour treadmill, and has wisely deleted Instagram). All great artists, and Harry most certainly is one, are like a sponge, stealing, emulating, copying, hero-worshipping. Harry also carries a bit of a chip, having been the product of a talent show, and so to him, the legacy of fame she wears so lightly is even more seductive.

Who knows if this relationship will work and they make it to a doubtless low-key, bare-foot altar, but I really hope Zoe, who dilutes Harry's intoxicating adrenaline, while he in turn worships her nonchalance, turns out to be the Linda to his Paul: an epic love story that will give birth to not just a tribe of kids (Harry adores his niece), but to great songs and many more movies. My feeling? Maybe he's amazed she ever agreed to go out with him in the first place… and that's how it should be.