I am BEYOND pleased to see Ms. Doria Ragland looking so beautiful and speaking on-camera on Netflix’s Harry & Meghan. Doria is my favorite part so far, and I definitely think it’s worth noting that Doria understood *immediately* that her daughter’s romance with Harry would be seen and discussed through a very specific racial – and racist – lens once their romance became public. Doria knew when Meghan didn’t. Doria wanted to tell Meghan to prepare for it before Meghan was ready to hear it. Doria expressed regret for what (she says) is her failure to properly prepare Meghan for how people would react to her as a biracial Black woman. But Doria is also there to talk about what Meghan was like as a child, and you can see her brimming with pride for her daughter.
Doria’s voice: “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 mom.”
When Meghan told her about Harry: “When she told me, we were on the phone and she says, ‘Mommy, I’m going out with Prince Harry,’ and I started whispering, ‘Oh my god!’ She says, ‘You can’t tell anyone.’ So from the beginning, it was very sort of, ‘Oh my god, nobody can know.’
Doria’s first impression of Harry: “He was just like, [this] 6ft 1, handsome man with red hair. Really great manners. He was just really nice. And they looked really happy together. Yeah, like he was the one.”
Raising Meghan after her divorce from Thomas Markle: “We were close to my mom, her grandma. My sister was close by, and my girlfriends were close by. So we had a nice network of women who helped me raise Meg… I remember asking Meg did I feel like her mom, and she told me that I felt like her older, controlling sister. I never forgot that.”
The novelty of her daughter’s relationship: “Once it was announced that they were together, it seemed like a novelty.”
She was harassed too: Doria revealed that she was being “stalked” by paparazzi when Meghan and Harry first got together. “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. Once I pulled over and so [the paparazzi] pulled next to me and said, ‘You know, I’m just trying to get a story. You can get a lot of money for this,’ and I just looked at him and said: ‘This is my child. I have nothing to say.'”
Doria’s silence over the last five years has been pretty epic, and I cannot even imagine the strength of character it took for Doria to do what Meghan asked and not speak publicly, all while her daughter was being smeared, harassed and threatened. Doria has been the strength behind the scenes, and that’s amazing for Meghan and Harry.
Photos courtesy of Netflix, Avalon Red.
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- Meghan Markle and her mother, Doria Ragland, arriving at Cliveden House Hotel on the National Trust’s Cliveden Estate to spend the night before her wedding to Prince Harry.,Image: 515240003, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (C) arrives with her mother, Doria Ragland (L) and Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex to host an event to mark the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London on September 20, 2018.,Image: 534009123, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Meghan, Duchess of Sussex (C) arrives with her mother, Doria Ragland (L) and Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex to host an event to mark the launch of a cookbook with recipes from a group of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire at Kensington Palace in London on September 20, 2018.,Image: 534009147, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- Malibu, CA – Kim Kardashian enjoys dinner at Nobu with friends and family in Malibu, CA. Kim showed off her sexy curves in an off-the-shoulder top and snug jeans as she is joined by mom Kris Jenner, Corey Gamble, and self-proclaimed “Foodgod” Jonathan Cheban. Kanye was also at the outing but left sooner in a separate ride. No signs of sisters Khloe or Kourtney! Pictured: Kim Kardashian BACKGRID USA 27 FEBRUARY 2019 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
I love her more now
Doria has been a rock to Meghan, giving her the confidence and moral anchor that helped preserve her sanity in the most trying moments. If I run into Doria, I’m sure I’ll call her mom 💞
I’m sure she’s a huge part of the reason that Meghan has such grace and strength.
Me too. I just can’t fathom how she ever ended up with Thomas Markle in the first place. Clearly occupies a space that is light years beyond him.
Meghan’s soul was ready to take shape.
We should all be so lucky to have a Doria in our lives.
Having watched all 3 episodes late last night, one of the highlights was sweet, beautiful, caring Doria Ragland!
I’m still processing it all, and will have a weekend rewatch, but, my word, what a privilege and pleasure to hear Meghan’s lovely mum share her experiences!
All the love for Ms. Doria!!!
❤️ ❤️ ❤️
I’m just itching to end my workday so I can settle on the couch with wine to watch this!!
Right?? It’s not fair that I have to work today!
Right?!?
If it wasn’t just the worst time to do it, I’d be taking a last-minute vacation day right now!
Doria went after Bad Dad. Beautiful.
Yes, I appreciated that she called Tom’s parenting skills into question. I also loved hearing her voice: there are echoes of Meghan in how she speaks. I also found it interesting that Doria never had to have “the talk” with Meghan because she didn’t present as black and the impact that had when the press discovered she was H’s girlfriend
How did Dora not tell / prep Meghan about that? I mean, I know Meghan can move inconegro in this world, and I can see how she wouldn’t have thought about it because she looks racially ambiguous but … seriously?! I am shocked that Dora overlooked that aspect.
I have always wondered this. Doria is lovely. However, as the Black mom to a mixed child who looks a lot like Meghan – does not read “Black” to most folks but you can certainly tell she’s not white, and Meghan’s childhood pictures with her naturally tightly curled hair make it obvious to me she has a Black parent – I wondered how and why Meghan seemed so naive and *brand new* about racism until she entered the royal family. I guessed that Doria really dropped the ball on preparing her child for racism (in my experience Black moms in interracial relationships are really diligent about this, way more than Black dads), which is a real shame. Whether or not to prepare your child for racism shouldn’t hinge on how ambiguous you think your mixed-race kid looks.
@Kali I really wondered the same thing. I don’t know what ethnicity anyone might have imagined Meghan to be if not part black…? It was obvious to me always. Maybe some folks could have guessed Dominican, but certainly with African ancestry, not only Spanish.
I have never believed the haters who love to say “I never even knew she was black in the first place”… I always considered that a dog whistle.
I’m not going to articulate myself well on this so bear with me. I remember when I was in college, one of my AFAM lit professors talked about how he struggles knowing if and when to point out to his children the burden they are going to bear because they’re black. He did not want them to be naive and he did not want them to be stifled and he did not want them to he jaded. It’s a tightrope and it angers me that we even have to do it. I will never judge Doria for maybe not getting it totally right (which she admits.) It’s bullshit that little black kids have to get that talk at all. (Sidenote: It must also be really complicated when you’re a black parent with a borderline white passing child because the lived experiences are different.) I remember my mom sitting me down and having those discussions. It felt like the world kind of…..shrunk. Like everything was less in reach. No child should have to live in a world like the one we’ve been dealt.
I know it seems hard to fathom but I kind of get where she is coming from re: the talk, as crazy as it seems. I’m biracial but look and feel black, my husband is white, and my eldest daughter varies between looking like a white presenting Latina and just straight up white. Her cousins are welsh and basically they all end up the same colour in the winter. All this to say that I have broached the topic with her but she doesn’t get it as she has never experienced it. I suspect she would also be shocked if she received the same treatment as Meghan were she to date a prince (which won’t happen because the royal family is trash)
I actually can understand a bit of what Doria said. I think they lived in an incredibly diverse area, multiracial but with her mom, aunt and grandma as her influences. Maybe they thought it wouldn’t be an issue in the broader world because it wasn’t an issue in their world. I don’t think she had her head in the sand but they seemed quite comfortable defining Meghan as biracial and their friends and family were comfortable with it too. I also think if she’d been a boy it may have been different. However to others it was a really big deal as she found out.
Telling your biracial children about it, and if they are very white-passing, them believing you without having experienced it firsthand somehow is the difference. I struggle myself trying to explain this to my very white-passing biracial children. They listen, they seem to ‘understand’ but I don’t think they do. Until it happens to them or they witness it happening to me.
@Duchess of Hazzard, her name is Doria, not Dora. If you’re a fan of Meghan you would know that. That said, I’m caucasian. Majority Irish, then German and Polish. Rumors of Italian according to ancestry tests.
I’m not going to slag Doria for what she didn’t do. IMO, Doria may have felt she didn’t need to have that conversation when Meghan was younger because it wasn’t an issue. Not making it a subject of conversation gave Meghan a normalization while growing up. In hindsight, Doria expressed her regrets.
I haven’t lived that experience. A couple we know, he’s Jamaican-she’s from Italy, have two daughters. One takes after their father, the other takes after their mother. Their father said that they would discuss things if/when it was an issue. He also told me they would go along to get along, until someone else made it and issue..then sh*t would hit the fan.
Some people are using the term “passing” as in White passing when I think what they mean is “presenting” as in, how a person may appear to (some) less discerning people. To try to pass as White is not a compliment, it’s living a lie, and I don’t think that’s what Meghan has been doing in her life.
Here’s another piece: Every generation, and probably every parent, hopes that they/we have finally reached the point where The Talk is no longer necessary — except as a lesson in history and empathy. What’s truly amazing , to me, at least, is that that Doria and Meghan’s father actually almost pulled it off. Meghan actually reached adulthood in America, in a profession that is often brutal without apparently needing The Talk. That alone feels like a miracle.
@agreatreckoning – I am surprised that me misspelling Doria‘s name is the only thing you took from the comment.
Not the fact that Doria just didn’t ever give her daughter the talk at all. That oversight almost destroyed her mentally.
You can tell where Megan gets all her inner strength and grace. So glad Doria gets to talk and share her perspective after 5 years of silence. ❤️
Not just inner strength and grace but also mannerisms and facial expressions! They have a way of speaking and expressing themselves that are so similar!
Kudos to Meghan’s mom. She has shown such restraint at the request of her daughter. My gossipy mom (and I say this with love) wouldn’t have kept that secret for longer than 24 hours. Too exciting for her. My mom most certainly wouldn’t have stayed quiet while the press racially slammed me. She would’ve fired back on Social Media so hard. Kudos to Meghan’s mom for her grace.
Even Doria’s rings make me think of Meghan. The two are very similar. I loved Doria. She is an amazing mom.
Two things:
I will cry all day with this.
Ms. Doria is BEAUTIFUL
If you want to talk about inner strength, grace, elegance and beauty, Ms. Doria has it all. She is true royalty.
You’re absolutely right, Doria is the real royalty, she embodies all that we expect from royalty. Maybe because of the fairytales we read about as children perpetuated by disney.
@Roo, yes. Doria has always been an example of all those things. She, like her beautiful daughter, are more regal than a lot of those considered royal by birth. That was probably part of the issue. Meghan inherently has those qualities. It wasn’t listening & learning. It is innate.
It really is quite a joke that Doria, who has been silent all these years and doing her thing, would ever be considered less than Kate’s Mom, who has been shilling Party Pieces on her royal connection.
Wow. Graceful and a true parent. I’m sure she understood the ramifications having been with Meghan’s dad.
I can see how Meghan became who she is, with strong women to help raise her and provide support.
Lastly, yes a parent doesn’t sell out their child. Thomas is a POS.
Agreed. A class act and a true parent with integrity.
I love her, I really do.
I haven’t watched but am thrilled to know Doria is in it. I admire her elegance and re: Meghan her mom makes up for that horrible father in every big and small way.
Doria actually has more natural grace and class than the entire BRF. Oh the irony.
Mama Doria!! ❤️
It must have been so incredibly hard for her to see Meghan suffering for years on end, but she’s so classy and supportive of her daughter. It’s lovely to hear her speak.
I’m pleased that she finally got to have her say but sorry that she had to go through much. She seems to really like Harry.
Aw, I love her.
I can’t imagine what doria has felt for the past 5 years, seeing her daughter maligned, dragged through the mud, harassed, getting death threats…..I’m glad she’s part of this series.
Just popping back into say that the discussion of race in episode 2 is really powerful and moving. I loved the point about how the white people in the newsrooms are the ones deciding if their coverage is racist or not.
Not that it matters, but Meghan has great genes because Doria is gorgeous and elegant.
I echo what others say about the last 6 years being super hard for her. I am glad she’s speaking out now.
LOVED hearing from Doria finally, and she has clearly been dying to talk.
Love her! “This is my child” wow. I can’t imagine how painful it was for her to see Meghan suffer so much. Her only baby. I am glad they are happy now!
I haven’t seen the series yet, but from what I have seen of Doria over the years she seems like a good person. What a far cry from Charles! I wonder what Harry thinks of that contrast.
I love this documentary. Their love story is very sweet.
And I see why BRF is boiling now. Their family life is what K&W try to sell us as their own. They try to sell that they had this great love story. That Kate’s family is that perfect one and Carole is a perfect mother. All while there is nothing more that toxic family dynamics between them all. And H&M really have it all, with Doria being a wonderful, supportive mother.
That’s the amazing woman who raised another amazing woman.
Truly a s/hero and a role model for how to be a supportive parent to your adult children. And beyond that, she just seems like a really interesting person. There aren’t a lot of public/public-adjacent people I want to be friends with, but she’s probably top of that list for me.
I agree.
Doria is a classy and elegant lady.
I absolutely adore her. So great to hear her speak.
Ugh freaking love her and how gorgeous is she!!! You can really see where Meghan gets it all from!
Love Doria! Can’t wait to watch this documentary this weekend. I have told this story before but when Harry and Meghan’s romance went public, my mother( a Black woman from the Caribbean who lived in Britain for a big part of her adult life) said to me immediately, “It won’t matter how beautiful. accomplished, or smart she is. It won’t matter if she appears white-passing(at least to white people), it won’t even matter if she makes the prince happy. They are going to treat her horribly, look how they treat other girlfriends and multiply it by 100x. I hope she has good support and I hope she is prepared. At the end of the day, Black is Black, is Black, is Black and royal family will hate that.” Whew.
Anyway, love Doria and cannot wait to hear more from her.
Your mother certainly called it. 💯!
Your mom sounds wonderful.
And I’m so glad Doria is part of this documentary. What she and Meghan endured is appalling.
Everyone should get to have a mom like Doria 💛
I’m so excited to watch this. I really wasn’t expecting Doria for some reason. She’s been this unbelievable rock, staying completely out of the fray. But of course this is them going on record on their own terms.
The British media: Meghan’s almost straight out of Compton!
Meghan: It was my white relations acting the fool.
THIS!
I would love Doria to be a guest on Meghan’s podcast at some point. And btw Archetypes won the People’s Choice award for best podcast! Beat out an impressive field, including Dax Shephard and Jimmy Kimmel.
Congrats to Meghan, yet another thing for them to be “Big Mad” about.
@Teddy that’s amazing!!!❤️ Way to go Meghan!!!
Not “Jimmy Kimmel” 🙂 She beat Conan’s podcast (conan needs a friend), which is also very beloved globally. So, it was really impressive feat. As a massive fan of both podcasts, I am glad our Duchess won over the ginger man.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
❤️❤️❤️ DORIA FOREVER ❤️❤️❤️
I sound like a broken record, but Doria is so regal.
People talk about a cooking/travel show and if she were to ever do this I would want Doria to be a part of it if she liked. I’m so interested in hearing more about her.
Ms Doria Ragland was incredible! A pillar of quiet strength and dignity.
The way, I was steaming watching it, how her privacy was invaded, INSIDE EDITION cameras right outside of her door, headlines of ROYAL SHAME regarding her using a laundromat and being constantly followed, all this being the least of her problems, then witnessing her daughter get dragged time after time. Fuck a prick!!!! Astonishing stuff!
On the superficial side: she is a gorgeous lady. On the non-superficial side: her character speaks for itself.
I remember saying on this site that when Meghan and Harry went to California for Thanksgiving with Doria, I said they were planning their move. I got dragged by commentary saying that will never happen. Huh.
I love and admire Doria so much. This woman is pure class and grace . I would have gone full Blown nuclear on these people
This is how a loving parent acts when approached by garbage people to destroy their own kid.
“Once I pulled over and so [the paparazzi] pulled next to me and said, ‘You know, I’m just trying to get a story. You can get a lot of money for this,’ and I just looked at him and said: ‘This is my child. I have nothing to say.’”
I am glad Prince Harry and Meghan are telling their own story. Wow, they are great together.
“[the paparazzi] pulled next to me and said, ‘You know, I’m just trying to get a story. You can get a lot of money for this,’ and I just looked at him and said: ‘This is my child. I have nothing to say.'”
And how differently her ex-husband responded.
Since you mentioned Thomas, is anyone else extremely curious how they got permission to use so many photos of him? I wonder if a huge reveal of the second half will be him actually being interviewed. I can’t think of how else they’d be able to legally do that, considering they immediately included a statement from Samantha after she was shown.
Imagine Thomas Markle revealing what was said or written by Jason Knauf.
I think a lot of those pictures were pictures that Thomas had already released. He gave the media a ton of childhood pictures of Meghan and himself so I think since they’re out there already, they are considered public domain? Kind of like how the docuseries was able to highlight headlines from news articles. A lot of the home videos of Meghan, including the clips of Meghan fishing with her dad and zooming in and out on his face, tap dancing etc, were clips I actually saw on Youtube for the first time a few days BEFORE the docuseries aired on Netflix today. I think Thomas released a lot of them (or other people did) and so the production team was able to include them because they’re already floating around online.
I think it is sad to say, but if Thomas was interviewed, we would know about it before doc aired. He would sell the story to the tabloids, what they asked, where it was conducted, etc. I think most of the Meghan’s childhood photos and videos with him were already made public by Thomas. Maybe that’s why they could use them?
How did I never know that Meghan has a close relationship with her niece on the Markle side, Samantha’s biological daughter who was adopted and raised by her paternal grandparents? I am learning so much from this series.
I’ve done some photography of events with public figures. Whoever takes or owns the photos usually owns the rights to them in this editorial capacity. They aren’t trying to make money off of his likeness specifically. And his story is not the one being told, so I don’t believe they needed his release just whoever took or currently owns the photos they used.
I think there’s absolutely no way he was involved at all. He couldn’t be trusted to be and believe the family is actually no contact with him for their well-being.
Doria!!! Am so grateful that this family has Doria. Archie and Lili have an amazing grandmother. What 2 amazing women to have as grandmas. Realize this is silly but saying their names together is beautiful. 3 syllables both starting with the same letter. Doria and Diana. Diana and Doria.
Totally agree. 2 beautiful grandmas…I noticed Harry only have pictures of Diana in the background. Even in the clip where he was interviewed in Eton dorm room, it was a framed picture of Diana in the background.
She is so beautiful.
This is my child. I have nothing to say… says it all.
I love that Doria knew he was the one from how happy they were together. It reminds me of when I told my parents I was getting married. I thought they under-reacted, so I went back and made sure they understood what I’d said, and my mom was just like, “duh, we could see where this was going.”
Just yesterday I was wondering if Doria would finally speak and so happy to hear from her. While she was clearly emotional talking about how Meghan and she were treated, I got such a calm and soothing aura from her. I can tell where Meghan gets her calm and chill demeanor because it’s definitely not from her dad. I am surprised she never had the “race talk” with Meghan but as Meghan is very fair skinned and for the most part in predominantly white spaces (apart from the neighborhood Meghan grew up in), it probably never occurred to her to do it. And she certainly could never have predicted she would marry a white prince from one of the most notable and racist families in the world and be subject to a torrent of racist abuse from the British press. I was so happy to hear her throw Thomas under the bus and call him out for his terrible behavior. I hope we’ll see more of her in the next episodes.
Such a genuine, well-spoken, good-hearted woman. It was so nice to hear who she is and how she has H&M’s backs like family SHOULD. And also fun to see pieces of personality that are echoed in Meghan. Love Doria! 💕
I’m absolutely sobbing watching ep2. The little girl who says that she hopes Meghan Markle joining the RF will make people rethink racism. SOB! I dislike when people attribute a beautiful innocence to children, because children absorb everything and often don’t have the privilege of naïveté, but at that stage Harry & Meghan also thought the worst of it would pass. It was hope more than naïveté and it’s just heart breaking knowing what’s coming.
Doria is everything that the royals, and royal hanger-ons CLAIM to be, but aren’t.
Regarding “the talk”, while Doria might not have specifically sat Meghan down and explained to her about racism, Meghan DEFINITELY witnessed her mother experiencing racism. When Meghan had the Tig, she wrote about navigating the world as a bi-racial woman, and described some really vile incidents she was present for, where her mother was called the N word. Also I remember reading that Scamantha used to tell people that Doria was the house maid(!!!) , and I’m sure Meghan was able to figure out why pretty early.
Not to mention, I think it’s likely that when Meghan was very young, friends or schoolmates, surprised that Doria is black, because Meghan doesn’t look “all the way” black, probably made tactless, unfiltered, dumb-kid comments. Which I bet really hurt Meghan.
So I don’t think “the talk” would have been necessary, Meghan was at least a witness to racism from the get.
I should have watched Harry & Meghan’s docuseries before I made that last comment, because Meghan describes the N word incident with her mom. And there I was thinking I was telling people something they might not already know! Derp! 🤡