Prince Harry, 33, the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, married Meghan Markle, 36, an American actress, at a ceremony at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, in Windsor, an ancient town West of London.
Prince Harry and his newly wedded wife, Meghan, now Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
What You Need to Know About Meghan Markle’s Mother Doria Ragland
Meet Prince Harry’s mother-in-law.
By Caroline Hallemann
All eyes will be on Meghan Markle later today when she walks down the aisle of St. George’s Chapel to marry Prince Harry. But they’ll also be on her 61-year-old mother Doria Ragland, who, as the mother of the bride, will share in the royal spotlight, just as Carole Middleton did back in 2011.
Ragland, who has met with several members of the royal family this week, including the Queen, has been assigned a special role in the wedding. This morning, she will ride in the car with Meghan to the chapel. Here’s everything you need to know about Prince Harry’s future mother-in-law.
MARKLE IS RAGLAND’S ONLY CHILD.
She and Tom Markle divorced when their daughter was six-years-old, but the marriage reportedly ended amicably. Markle, who is Ragland’s only child, lived with her mother after her parents’ split, but saw her father regularly.
By all accounts, Markle 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,” she said of Ragland in Glamour this past August. “That duality coexists the same way it would in a best friend.”
SHE CALLS MARKLE BY AN ADORABLE NICKNAME: FLOWER.
When sharing her humanitarian work on her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig, Markle 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 Ragland will fit right in.
RAGLAND IS A SOCIAL WORKER.
“She works specifically with the geriatric community,” Markle has said. In the past Markle has also described her mother as “a free-spirited clinical therapist,” who also teaches yoga.
Despite all the royal craziness over the past few months, Raglandreportedly still works at Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services in Culver City, California. The organization’s mission statement reads, “Didi Hirsch transforms lives by providing quality mental health and substance abuse services in communities where stigma or poverty limit access.”
SHE’S A FREE SPIRIT.
Markle 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.
Markle credits her parents’ influence with her philanthropic instincts. “Both my parents came from little, so they made a choice to give a lot,” Markle 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 SOON-TO-BE 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!” Ragland and Harry have reportedly met several times (including at the2016 Invictus Games, pictured above).
“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,” Markle 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.”
Ragland and Markle’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.”
Who Is Meghan Markle’s Father, Thomas Markle Sr.?
Here’s everything you need to know, from his career in Hollywood to his relationship with his daughter.
by ROSE MINUTAGLIO
One conspicuous absence from today’s royal wedding is Meghan Markle’s father, Thomas Markle Sr., who is reportedly recovering after undergoing heart surgery last week. (Kensington Palace announced Friday that instead of Thomas Prince Charles will accompany his soon-to-be daughter-in-law down the aisle.)
“Sadly, my father will not be attending our wedding,” Meghanannounced Thursday via a statement on Twitter. “I have always cared for my father and hope he can be given the space he needs to focus on his health,” it reads.
“I would like to thank everyone who has offered generous messages of support. Please know how much Harry and I look forward to sharing our special day with you on Saturday.”
Thomas told TMZ on Wednesday that doctors implanted stents in his blood vessels following a heart attack he said he’d had the previous week. “I’m ok. It will take a long time to heal,” he told TMZ. “Staying in the hospital a few more days. Not allowed to get excited.”
Markle Sr. first shared the news of this cardiac procedure with TMZ on Tuesday.
“They [doctors] will go in and clear blockage, repair damage and put a stent where it is needed,” he said.
That sad news came just hours after Markle Sr. affirmed that he would like to walk his daughter down the aisle: “I hate the idea of missing one of the greatest moments in history and walking my daughter down the aisle,” he said.
On Monday, Markle Sr. apparently told TMZ that he would not be at his daughter’s wedding on Saturday because of the “fallout” over selling paparazzi photos of himself, which he called “stupid and hammy.” At that time, the outlet first reported that Markle Sr. had suffered a heart attack six days ago.
When asked to comment on the TMZ story, a spokesman for Kensington Palace said:
“This is a deeply personal moment for Ms. Markle in the days before her wedding. She and Prince Harry ask again for understanding and respect to be extended to Mr. Markle in this difficult situation.”
Here’s everything you need to know about the man whose daughter stole Prince Harry’s heart.
HE MET MEGHAN’S MOTHER, DORIA RAGLAND, IN THE LATE 1970S.
“I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her Afro, plus their shared love of antiques,” Meghan wrote in an 2016 ELLE UK essay about being biracial titled ‘I’m More Than An Other.’ The couple wed, moved to a Los Angeles neighborhood that was “leafy and affordable,” and welcomed Meghan into the world on August 4, 1981.
The bride-to-be recalls her upbringing in the Valley as lacking in diversity. “There was my mom, caramel in complexion with her light-skinned baby in tow, being asked where my mother was since they assumed she was the nanny,” Meghan wrote.
Meghan’s parents separated when she was 6. She lived with Ragland, a yoga instructor and social worker, after the divorce.
HE HAS TWO OTHER CHILDREN FROM A PREVIOUS MARRIAGE.
Meghan has two half-siblings, Samantha and Thomas Jr., who are the children of Thomas Sr.’s first marriage to Roslyn Loveless.
Samantha Markle, who is also known by the name Samantha Grant, is 17 years Meghan’s senior and has spoken with the press frequently about her half-sister—and not always in a positive way.
HOLLYWOOD RUNS IN THE FAMILY.
Ever since the couple revealed news of their engagement, anglophiles have been hungry for information on Markle, an actress best known for her portrayal of Rachel Zane on the television show Suits.
The 36-year-old (she’s three years older than her fiancé) is a breath of fresh air for the British monarchy—not least because her background is so different from most other royals. She hails from Los Angeles, and as the daughter of Thomas Sr., a television lighting director, Meghan credits her dad and the time she spent on set with him as a kid with sparking her interest in acting.
Thomas Sr. worked in Hollywood for years. When Meghan was a kid, he was a television lighting director and photography director on sets likeMarried… with Children and General Hospital.
“Every day after school for 10 years, I was on the set of Married … with Children, which is a really funny and perverse place for a little girl in a Catholic school uniform to grow up,” she told Esquire in 2013. “There were a lot of times my dad would say, ‘Meg, why don’t you go and help with the craft services room over there? This is just a little off-color for your 11-year-old eyes.'”
Still, it felt glamorous to the impressionable tween. “And there I was, behind the scenes of a glossy soap opera and a TV sitcom, surrounded by famous actors and their glam teams, multi-million dollar budgets, and crew lunches that always included filet mignon and enough sweets to make you think you were at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory,” Meghan wrote later on her lifestyle website The Tig.
Thomas Sr. won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Achievement in Design Excellence For a Daytime Drama Series.
HE’S PROUD OF HIS DAUGHTER’S PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS.
Ramon Moreno, identified as a family friend, says Thomas Sr. regularly talks about his famous daughter. He told Daily Mail, “[Thomas] was proud of her when she was in Suits, even before she was with the Prince. I am sure Tom will be there at the wedding. He will want to be there. He will be so happy. He loves his daughter very, very much. He says they talk regularly.”
In Vanity Fair, Meghan called both of her parents “so supportive.”
“My parents had been so supportive watching me audition, trying to make ends meet, taking all the odds-and-ends jobs to pay my bills,” she told the magazine. “I was doing calligraphy, and I was a hostess at a restaurant — and all those things that actors do… My father knew how hard it is for an actor to get work, so he above all people was so proud that I was able to beat the odds.”
HIS LOTTERY WIN HELPED JUMPSTART MEGHAN’S CAREER.
According to Meghan’s brother Thomas Jr., their father reportedly scored a $750,000 lottery win when Meghan was nine–a large sum of money that ultimately helped her pursue her acting dreams. “If Meg marries Harry she’ll have won the lottery of life but dad winning the lottery helped us all,” he told Daily Mail in November 2017. “That money allowed Meg to go to the best schools and get the best training. Meg is someone who has always had laser focus. She knows what she wants and she doesn’t stop until she gets it.
“She was always the family’s princess but now she’s going to be a real princess and I couldn’t be more proud.”
HE HELPED HIS DAUGHTER FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH HER IDENTITY.
When Meghan’s seventh grade English teacher told her to check the ethnicity box for Caucasian on a mandatory census, which confused her, she says her father told her: “If that happens again, you draw your own box.”
“I never saw my father angry, but in that moment I could see the blotchiness of his skin crawling from pink to red,” she wrote in ELLE UK. “It made the green of his eyes pop and his brow was weighted at the thought of his daughter being prey to ignorance. Growing up in a homogeneous community in Pennsylvania, the concept of marrying an African-American woman was not on the cards for my dad.”
HE NOW LIVES IN MEXICO.
He’s reportedly relocated to the small beach city of Rosarito, where he told reporters that he’d “love to” give his daughter away at the wedding. “I’m very pleased, I’m delighted,” he told the U.K.’s Daily Mirror.
IT HAD PREVIOUSLY BEEN CONFIRMED THAT THOMAS MARKLE WOULD WALK HIS DAUGHTER DOWN THE AISLE.
Prince Harry’s press secretary announced on May 4 that both both of Meghan’s parents would play a role in the wedding:
“On the morning of the wedding, Ms. Ragland will travel with Ms. Markle by car to Windsor Castle. Mr. Markle will walk his daughter down the aisle of St George’s Chapel. Ms. Markle is delighted to have her parents by her side on this important and happy occasion.”
At the time of the announcement, the plan was for both of Meghan’s parents to spend time with the royal family before the wedding. “Prince Harry and Ms. Markle are very much looking forward to welcoming Ms. Markle’s parents to Windsor for the wedding, read the official statement, which continued: “Mr. Thomas Markle and Ms. Doria Ragland will be arriving in the UK in the week of the wedding, allowing time for Prince Harry’s family, including The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, and The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, to spend time with them before the big day.”
