The mother ‘Free spirit’ with dreadlocks and nose ring is daughter’s pride
Doria Ragland, 60, was born in Los Angeles to an antique dealer father and a mother who was a nurse.
She attended the Fairfax High School, where she was remembered as bright and friendly – the teenager with the “Afro” hairstyle who loved listening to Marvin Gaye and dining out at a local Mexican taco joint with friends.
After school she worked as a make-up artist, which is how she met her husband, Thomas Markle, a lighting director in Hollywood. The pair married in 1979 and Ms Markle was born two years later. The family moved into a house in The Valley, LA, to a neighbourhood that Ms Markle described as “leafy and affordable”.
Ms Ragland and Mr Markle divorced in 1987 but remained friends. Ms Ragland took a job as an air stewardess, meaning their daughter was frequently cared for by her father. She later returned to university to obtain a masters in social work, following on from her BA in psychology.
She now lives in the house she inherited from her father in 2011 in the Crenshaw area of LA. She and her daughter are extremely close – Ms Ragland once drove a car with the number plate MEGNME – and Ms Markle has spoken of her pride in her free-spirited mother, with her dreadlocks and nose ring.