Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Inspirational mum gave Meghan her good heart
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has still not been decided what day of the week the wedding will be held and Downing Street said there are “no plans” for it to be a bank holiday.
As a divorcee Meghan has been given special permission to wed in a religious service and will be baptised and confirmed into the Church of England so it can take place.
She is a Protestant who went to a Catholic school. Her mum Doria Ragland is Protestant and dad Thomas Markle is Episcopalian.
The 36-year-old American actress will become a British citizen as she makes this country her home – as a duchess. It is believed she will retain her US citizenship. Another source said: “She’ll be doing some travelling in the next couple of weeks to see family and friends before she permanently settles at Kensington Palace.”
Meghan will take the citizenship test, but she may need to brush up on it as she got four out of 15 questions right when quizzed for a joke TV segment before she met Harry.
Harry will become the first senior royal to marry a divorcee in a church. The Queen will attend – something
that as Supreme Governor of the Church of England she did not do when Prince Charles married Camilla in a civil ceremony in 2005. She did go to the service of dedication afterwards in the chapel.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby is tipped to perform the ceremony. Meghan’s dad is expected to walk her down the aisle, despite the fact he has not yet met Harry. Yesterday, her
estranged half-sister Samantha said Thomas was “excited and very proud and very happy” about the engagement.
She added: “Doesn’t every father want his daughter’s happiness? He is elated, as we all are.” Meghan will perform her debut royal duties in Nottingham on Friday. She is to visit causes close to 33-year-old Harry’s heart to mark World Aids Day and meet people being helped by a programme trying to end youth violence and crime.
There are also plans for her and Harry to travel around the country so she can get to know her new home.
Meghan’s first overseas visit as a royal could be to Sydney next October where the prince will host his fourth Invictus Games for wounded servicemen and women.
AN African-american social worker who has a nose ring and lives in a rundown neighbourhood, Meghan Markle’s mum is not the typical mother-in-law of a British prince.
Doria Ragland, 60, is a force to be reckoned with who will go through the front gates of Kensington Palace in one of the most remarkable moments in the history of the Royal Family.
The formidable mum inspired Meghan’s humanitarian work and helped her become the strong, independent woman who captured Harry’s heart.
Meghan was brought up in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s and her parents’ mixed-race marriage was met with some raised eyebrows back then.
A year before she met Prince Harry, Meghan revealed that Doria was regularly mistaken as being the hired help.
“They moved into a house in The Valley in LA to a neighbourhood that was leafy and affordable,” Meghan wrote about her parents. “What it was not, however, was diverse. 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 added: “My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African-american. I’m half black and half white. Being biracial paints a blurred line that is equal parts staggering and illuminating.”
She said she likes to think her dad – Dutch-irish TV lighting director Thomas Markle – was drawn to Doria’s “sweet eyes and her Afro”.
Meghan is the child of a broken home
just like Harry, whose parents Prince Charles and Princess Diana finalised their divorce in 1996.
But while the royal couple split with bitterness, Meghan’s mum and dad, who divorced in 1987 when she was aged six, remained close and the trio still went on holidays together.
This bond and her parents’ commitment to raising a daughter who was not bound by prejudices made her the feisty feminist she is today.
Meghan is still very close to Doria. Last year Meghan paid a Mother’s Day tribute to her online, sharing a picture of Doria’s graduation day.
She captioned the photo: “Always proud of this beautiful woman. This was when she graduated from [the University of Southern California] with a masters in social work.”
Doria’s great-great-great grandad was born into slavery but freed at the end of the American Civil War in 1865.
Former slaves had to choose their surnames and he decided on Wisdom. Down-to-earth and in dreadlocks, Doria lives in down-at-heel Crenshaw in LA, and filed for bankruptcy in 2002 over a £40,000 credit card bill.
She works for Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, which says it provides “quality mental health and substance abuse services in communities where stigma or poverty limit access”.
Meghan said previously her mum “works with the geriatric community”.
She also spoke out about the racism Doria endured in a tense LA haunted by race riots. Meghan said: “I was home in LA on a college break when my mom was called the ‘N’ word.
“We were leaving a concert and she wasn’t pulling out of a parking space quickly enough for another driver.”
She looked over at tearful Doria then whispered: “It’s OK, Mommy.”
Doria, who Meghan describes as a “free-spirited clinical therapist”, would take her daughter to remote, often impoverished, destinations when she was younger. It was these excursions
that led to her interest in philanthropy. The actress and her besotted prince share a love for charity work and holidaying in Africa, and it’s clear to see how Doria has been such a defining influence on her life.
Meghan once said: “Both my parents came from little, so they made a choice to give a lot.”
In a fittingly low-key moment for someone who is so grounded, former yoga instructor Doria was spotted out and about taking her dogs for a walk on the day it was announced her daughter was engaged to the prince.
Harry and Meghan’s first public kiss was at the Invictus Games in Toronto in September. But royal watchers attached as much significance to Harry flying Doria the 2,500 miles from LA to Canada to join them there.
Doria’s nickname for her daughter is Flower, a term she has used since Meghan was a little girl.
Now the mum will get to see her Flower blossom into a duchess.
Being caramel in complexion, Mom was mistaken as a nanny MEGHAN ON LIFE IN L.A. WHEN SHE WAS A BABY