Doria Ragland Finally Breaks Her Silence In Harry & Meghan

Meghan Markle’s mother Doria Ragland has managed to avoid all discussion of her famous daughter since she first started dating Prince Harry in 2016. Despite being hounded by paparazzi on a regular basis, Ragland has been a model of dignified silence. And now she has decided to speak out. Ragland opened up publicly for the first time about what her life has been like since her daughter met Prince Harry in the couple’s new Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, and she remains a strong mom ready to protect her daughter no matter what.

In the first three episodes of Harry & Meghan, Ragland made her voice heard for the first time, something she has avoided doing for the past five years, which she described as “challenging.” Yes, there have definitely been some highs for Ragland. Like seeing her daughter find love with Prince Harry, even if it was a secret. The proud mother-in-law called Prince Harry “handsome” and “really nice,” in the documentary, noting he had “really great manners.”

While she was excited for her daughter to find “the one,” Ragland saw her own life change almost immediately after the world found out the two were dating. “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,” Ragland explained, noting that she felt “stalked by the paparazzi” outside her Los Angeles home where she works as a social worker.

No matter how much she was stalked or followed, however, she never offered up a story. Even when one member of the paparazzi pulled up beside her car to plead with her. “Once, I pulled over,” Ragland explained in the docuseries. “And so he pulled next to me and said ‘you know, I just was trying to get a story. You know you can get a lot of money for this.’”

Her response? “This is my child. I have nothing to say.” Meghan praised her mom for remaining “classy and quiet.” Unlike the other side of her family, who Meghan said was “acting differently” with the media.

Ragland also had something to say about her ex-husband Thomas Markle’s decision to continuously engage with the press about their daughter. Especially in the week before her wedding to Prince Harry, when her father was caught staging pictures for the press for a reported $100,000. “I was absolutely stunned that Tom would become part of this circus,” Ragland said of her ex-husband’s behavior. “I felt sad that the media would run with this. That he would capitalize... certainly as a parent. No, that’s not what you do.”

Doria Ragland is clearly the gold standard for what a parent should do. Stay in their child’s corner no matter what.