Meghan Markle has plenty to celebrate. The Duchess of Sussex, 43, “couldn’t be more excited” to launch her lifestyle brand American Riviera Orchard “early next year”; her husband, Prince Harry, turns 40 this coming month; and her recent official visit to Colombia has been widely heralded as a surprising success. And as Markle sets her sights on a packed schedule, no doubt she will have found time to celebrate the birthday of one of the most important women in her life: her mother, Doria Ragland.
The mother and daughter share a steadfast bond, with Ragland often described as a “rock” for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, especially as their relationship with the House of Windsor seems to grow ever stormier. Ahead of Ragland’s 68th birthday on September 2, Meghan Markle took time to pay tribute to her mother during her Colombian tour.
“I find inspiration in the strong women around me. Of course, my mother being one of them,” the Duchess told the Afro Women and Power Forum. “So much of how I approach things is less about the fight and more about, ‘How do we show up in a space and wash things over with love and kindness and generosity?’”
And it seems that Markle has learned these values from her mother. A yoga instructor with a master’s degree in social work, Ragland once ran a dressmaking business. She was born in the ’50s, growing up in Hollywood during a time of troubling racial tension—not that the young student let that intimidate her, according to her friend Jennifer Caldwell. “She was part of an all-Black group of students which would regularly protest,” she told MailOnline. “She was always smiling, whip-smart and sociable,” Caldwell continued. “She wanted to make something of her life.”
And now, as mother-in-law to Prince Harry, and grandmother to Prince Archie, five, and Princess Lilibet, three, Ragland finds herself dining with royals and rubbing shoulders with celebrities—even living for a time at Frogmore Cottage after the birth of Archie, as Prince Harry revealed in his memoir, Spare. Recently, she has been spotted spending time with Beyoncé’s mother, Tina Knowles, at culturati events, and runs in similar circles to the likes of Kris Jenner—all three of them women who know a thing or two about raising strong daughters.
Despite this sudden catapult to the upper echelons of high society glamour, Ragland has never let luxury erode her steadfast support for Meghan and Harry. Take, for example, her refusal to speak to the press regarding the legal spat between the Duchess of Sussex and her father, from whom she separated in 1987. While other members of the Markle family on both sides aired their grievances, the royal grandmother kept, well, mum on the matter. Indeed, she was the only one of the clan to receive an invite to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s wedding in 2018, walking out of St. George’s Chapel side by side with King Charles and Camilla—now the King and Queen of Great Britain.
Perhaps it is this unwavering commitment to decency that led one confidant to compare Ragland to a very notable royal indeed: “She is like the Queen,” an insider told the Mail on Sunday. “She never complains and never explains.” Indeed, as Prince Harry remains estranged from the royal family, sources have said that Ragland has become an increasingly important figure in his life, one to whom the prince feels he can turn for emotional support.
“Meghan has always trusted her completely but she has become a rock to Harry who, of course, lost his own mother so young,” they said. “Doria has a great warmth. She’s a brilliant cook and is very motherly, but she isn’t someone who seeks attention, and for Harry, her discretion and silence mean the world.”
Ragland, who Meghan wrote was mistaken for her nanny due to the color of her skin, spoke fondly of the moment her daughter introduced her to the British prince for the first time.
“I remember when I first met him,” she reminisced in the couple’s 2022 documentary series, “a six-foot-one handsome man with red hair, really great manners. It was just really nice and they looked really happy together, like he was the one. Once it was announced that they were together, it seemed kind of like a novelty.”
Prince Harry, too, has recounted this most joyful of meetings, describing the first time he met his future mother-in-law in Spare. He and Meghan were “celebrating Doria”—at where else than the couple’s “favorite” spot, the Soho House on Dean Street—in what the Duke recalled as a “wonderful” moment.
That dinner, however, would mark a notable turning point in an altogether more sour relationship: that between Prince Harry and the press. “I look back on it now as the end of the beginning,” he said. “The next day, the pap photos appeared, and there was a new flood of stories, a new surge along the many channels of social media. Racism, misogyny, criminal stupidity—it all increased.”
Hopefully Ragland enjoyed a joyful birthday celebration this week. Perhaps spending time with Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet at the family’s Montecito mansion, where she is said to have a granny flat to ensure she can care for her grandchildren as they grow up. Of course, last year’s big day will take some topping: Harry, Meghan, and Doria spent the evening dancing away at Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour.
This article first appeared on Tatler.
