When Meghan Markle married Prince Harry in St. George's Chapel, her mother Doria Ragland was the only member of her immediate family in attendance. Doria has served as a rock for Meghan over the last few years, and now, she's speaking out about Meghan's experience joining the royal family in the new Netflix docuseries, Harry & Meghan.
"The last five years has been challenging," Doria says in the show's second episode. "I'm ready to have my voice heard, that's for sure. A little bit of my experience, you know, as her mom."
In the program, Doria also opens up about when Meghan first told her that she was dating Prince Harry, and the first time Doria met her daughter's future husband. "He was just like six one, handsome man with red hair. Really great manners," Doria said of Prince Harry. "He was just really nice. And they looked really happy together—like he was the one."
Additionally, Doria spoke to the cameras about the media scrutiny and harassment she faced because of her daughter's relationship.
"I felt unsafe a lot. I can't just go walk my dogs. I can't just go to work. There was always someone there waiting for me, following me to work. I was being stalked by the paparazzi," she said. When one of them seemingly bribed her for a story she recalled saying: "This is my child. I have nothing to say."
Later on, in episode three of the series, Doria speaks about her ex-husband, and how he staged photos for the paparazzi before not showing up at his daughter's wedding.
"I was absolutely stunned that Tom would become part of this circus," she said. "I felt sad that the media would run with this, that he would capitalize. Certainly as a parent, that's not what you do. that's not parenting."
In light of her recent appearance in Harry & Meghan, here's everything you need to know about Meghan's mom.
She is overjoyed to be a grandmother.
Doria was by her daughter's side in Meghan's first days of motherhood. She has traveled over to the U.K. to stay with the Sussexes in Frogmore Cottage for a few weeks after baby Archie was born. In a statement released shortly after the royal baby's birth, Doria shared that she is "overjoyed" about the arrival of her first grandchild, Archie.
And Meghan's mother was with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as they introduced their child to the Queen and Prince Philip at Windsor Castle. While Doria didn't share a statement following the birth of baby Lili, it's safe to assume she was "overjoyed" by her arrival as well.
She enjoyed meeting the Queen at Meghan's wedding.
Doria had a special role in the royal wedding. She rode in the car with her daughter to the chapel, then took her place inside the church quire, opposite the Queen.
Doria had flown to England a few days before the wedding to be with Markle and to meet with members of the royal family, including Prince Charles and Camilla and, of course, Queen Elizabeth II. A source recently revealed to Us Weekly, that aside from watching her daughter get married, her favorite moment of the week was meeting the Queen.
"Doria is saying the biggest highlight of the wedding, of course after watching her daughter say 'I do' to the man she loves, was meeting the queen. It would have been extremely intimidating for anyone, but Meghan and Harry really did a marvelous job of preparing her [with] what to expect."
Meghan is Doria's only child.
She and Tom Markle divorced when their daughter was six years old, but the marriage reportedly ended amicably. Meghan, who is Doria's only child, primarily lived with her mother after her parents' split, but saw her father regularly.
By all accounts, Meghan and her mom appear to have an incredibly close relationship. "We can just have so much fun together, and yet I'll still find so much solace in her support," Meghan said of her in Glamour. "That duality coexists the same way it would in a best friend."
She calls Meghan by an adorable nickname: Flower.
When sharing her humanitarian work on her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig, Meghan revealed her sweet nickname. "I’m consistently asked how I keep a foot in two contrasting worlds–one in the entertainment industry, predicated on wealth and indulgence, and the other in humanitarian work. To me, it’s less of a question of how can you do this, and more a question of how can you not?" she wrote in a post titled "How to Be Both."
"'I don’t know, Flower. You were just born that way.' This is my mom’s response to the aforementioned question, and indicative of the character traits she knows me to have so well: opinionated, driven, and with a deep desire to affect change. 'It’s just who you are,' she says. (And yes, she calls me, 'Flower.')"
Given the royal family's propensity for pet names, it sounds like Doria will fit right in.
Doria was a social worker.
"She works specifically with the geriatric community," Meghan said in the past. Meghan has also described her mother as "a free-spirited clinical therapist," who teaches yoga.
It's unclear at this point if Raglad still works at Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services in Culver City, California.
See All the Adorable Photos of Meghan Markle and Her Mother Doria Ragland at the Royal Wedding
She's a free spirit.
Meghan has written about her mother and their bond several times. In a 2014 Tig post called "Love Letter," the soon-to-be royal described her in this way: "Dreadlocks. Nose ring. Yoga instructor. Social worker. Free spirit. Lover of potato chips & lemon tarts. And if the DJ cues Al Green’s soul classic “Call Me,” just forget it. She will swivel her hips into the sweetest little dance you’ve ever seen, swaying her head and snapping her fingers to the beat like she’s been dancing since the womb. And you will smile. You won’t be able to help it. You will look at her and you will feel joy. I’m talking about my mom."
She raised Meghan to understand the importance of giving back.
Meghan credits her parents' influence with her philanthropic instincts. "Both my parents came from little, so they made a choice to give a lot," Meghan wrote on The Tig in 2016, "buying turkeys for homeless shelters at Thanksgiving, delivering meals to patients in hospice care, donating any spare change in their pocket to those asking for it, and performing quiet acts of grace—be it a hug, a smile, or a pat on the back to show ones in need that they would be alright."
It was her upbringing that inspired her advocacy work. "This is what I grew up seeing, so that is what I grew up being," she continued, "a young adult with a social consciousness to do what I could, and to, at the very least, speak up when I knew something was wrong."
Prince Harry is clearly a fan of his mother-in-law.
And it appears the feeling is mutual. During the couple's first sit-down interview with the BBC, Prince Harry said simple, "Her mum’s amazing!" Doria and Harry reportedly met several times over the course of his early relationship with Meghan, including at the 2016 Invictus Games.
"I’m sure at the onset, both my parents and my close friends were concerned because we got very quickly swept up in a media storm that was not part of my life before that, but they also had never seen me so happy," Meghan said in that same BBC interview.
"And I think also once my friends were able to really meet Harry and my mom, who we’ve spent a lot of time with, who’s so much fun...It was just obvious that no matter what we were being put through, it was just temporary."
Doria and Meghan's father released a statement following the royal engagement announcement, which read: "We are incredibly happy for Meghan and Harry. Our daughter has always been a kind and loving person. To see her union with Harry, who shares the same qualities, is a source of great joy for us as parents. We wish them a lifetime of happiness and are very excited for their future together."
As the digital director for Town & Country, Caroline Hallemann covers culture, entertainment, and a range of other subjects
