Who is Meghan Markle’s mum Doria Ragland and what did she say in Prince Harry’s Netflix docuseries?

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have royally thrown caution to the wind as they share ‘their truth’ in their new Netflix docuseries.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex explain their ‘complex journey’ from meeting and starting a relationship to their decision to move away from the royal family to the other side of the pond.

As the series progresses, a few familiar faces pop up to weigh in on the couple’s relationship including Meghan Markle’s mum Doria Ragland, who has spoken out for the first time.

While Doria may not be a household name, she has certainly made numerous appearances with her 41-year-old daughter at public events and even attended Meghan and Harry’s 2018 wedding in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

With Doria telling her side of the story on the six-episode Netflix documentary series, People World takes a look at who the American social worker is, and what she has said:

Who is Doria Ragland?

Doria Loyce Ragland is an American social worker who was born in Cleveland Ohio in 1956 to Jeanette Arnold and Alvin Ragland, a nurse and antiques dealer respectively, but moved to Los Angeles as a baby with her parents before they divorced.

For over 60 years, Doria has lived in Los Angeles in a home left to her by her father, and has worked hard at several jobs, with her first being an assistant makeup artist on television shows straight after high school.

Doria has undertaken jobs as a travel agent, a yoga instructor, a teacher to show people how to make jewellery and most recently become a CEO, CFO and secretary of a care home in LA called Loving Kindness Senior Care Management.

The 66-year-old had her own business in the mid-2000s but declared bankruptcy before earning a Masters in social work at the University of Southern California. Utilising this degree, Doria completed three years as a social worker.

How did she meet Meghan Markle’s Dad Thomas?

After graduating from Fairfax High School, Doria was working as an assistant makeup artist on the set of soap opera General Hospital where she met Emmy-winning lighting engineer Thomas Markle.

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Markle had had a family before meeting Doria on the set of the show in the late seventies, as the lighting director had two children Thomas Jr and Samantha with student Roslyn Loveless in 1964.

Thomas and Doria married on 23 December 1979 at Hollywood’s Paramahansa Yogananda Self-Realisation Fellowship Temple, before giving birth to their only daughter Rachel Meghan Markle in 1981.

Despite the negativity in the press surrounding Meghan’s parents, the now Duchess of Sussex has previously described her parent’s chance meeting saying: “I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her Afro, plus their shared love of antiques.”

What did Doria say in the Harry & Meghan documentary?

The second episode of Harry and Meghan’s bombshell series gave Doria a platform to ‘have [her] voice heard’ and to reflect on her only daughter’s relationship with the Prince.

Introducing herself, Doria said to the camera: “The last five years have been challenging. I’m ready to have my voice heard, that’s for sure. A little bit of my experience as her mum.”

She continued: “We were close to my mum, her grandma. My sister was close by, and my girlfriends were close by. So we had a nice network of women who helped raise Meg.”

While Doria recalled happy times in recent years such as the first time meeting King Charles’ youngest son, saying she knew ‘he was the one’, she also told of how ‘unsafe’ she has felt as a result of her daughter’s relationship.

Doria said: “I felt unsafe a lot. I can’t go for walks with my dogs, I can’t just go to work. There was always someone there waiting for me..I felt like I was being stalked by the paparazzi.”

The Los Angeles resident opened up about a particular story when a journalist pulled over next to her trying to get a story about Meghan, to which she replied: “This is my child. I have nothing to say.”