Mum Doria shuns Meghan’s millions to make hippy bling
THE Duchess of Sussex owns Cartier jewellery worth a fortune but her mother, Doria Ragland, has far simpler tastes.
I can reveal that she has started a new job as a teacher showing students how to make hippy jewellery.
Doria, 63, who quit her post as a social worker at a mental health clinic after her daughter married into the Royal Family in 2018, is teaching at a community college in Los Angeles. Her classes show students how to design bohemian ‘floating’ pearl necklaces, create multi- strand bracelets and ‘linked necklaces’ made of wire.
The lessons at Santa Monica College, which are currently on hold due to the pandemic, cost between £29 and £33 and are held at the campus nine miles from her home.
The college was the scene of a mass shooting in 2013 that left five dead.
Meghan, who has gushed about her mother having a ‘ free spirit’, recently moved into an £11 million mansion with Prince Harry and 15-month-old Archie 90 miles away in Santa Barbara.
Her mother’s biography on the college website states: ‘ Doria Ragland is a local artist who has haVing led a successful campaign to allow gurkhas the right to settle in this country, Joanna Lumley has now taken up a new battle cry on behalf of the mountain warriors. She’s campaigning for them to be honoured with a statue in aldershot, where some are based. the absolutely Fabulous actress says such a monument would be ‘wonderful’. her father, Major James Lumley, served during the Burma campaign as an officer with the 6th gurkha Rifles. been designing jewellery and clothing for over ten years. She has participated in some of the finest art shows in the country and has received awards for her designs. She loves teaching and believes in wearing handmade jewellery.’
Doria was a make-up artist on television show General Hospital when she met Meghan’s father, Thomas Markle, a lighting director. She used to sell jewellery that she had made herself to help the family finances.
Meghan was six years old when her parents divorced and she lived with her mother until she was a teenager, when she moved to live with Thomas.