Her only relative: avery proud (and dignified) mum
FEELING two billion pairs of eyes upon her, Doria Ragland was equal parts proud and petrified.
As she entered St George’s Chapel just before noon, guests, sensing her unease, cast benevolent smiles in her direction.
Normally the bride’s mother cuts a commanding figure around whom family and trusted lieutenants coalesce. But for reasons that are now all too familiar, Doria, yoga instructor and occasional social worker, was the sole representative of the Markle clan yesterday. Inescapably, this was the wedding’s loneliest woman. Sometimes she seemed quite lost.
At all times, though, she comported herself with a quiet dignity that some of her former relatives on the other side of the Atlantic would do well to note, even if emulating it might prove beyond them. Before sitting down to find the entire royal family ranged intimidatingly before her, Doria smiled, looked down, looked up, then bit her lip.
Having left her Los Angeles home only a few days earlier, she had already met some of the senior royals and had tea and a slice of Victoria sponge with the Queen. That was a piece of cake. This was overwhelming.
She looked around. George Clooney nodded and smiled. And then came her dazzling daughter on the arm of the Queen’s son and future king.
Perhaps among the 30 million watching on TV in the US (part of a two billion global audience) were the women who habitually mistook Doria for ‘the help’ after she moved to a predominantly white Los Angeles neighbourhood when Meghan was a baby.
How those same women would dearly love to be Doria’s friends now. At one point the camera zoomed in on her face when the Archbishop of Canterbury asked if Harry and Meghan’s families would ‘support and uphold them in their marriage now and in the years to come?’ Doria issued an emphatic: ‘We will.’ Maybe she summoned thoughts of Prince Charles’s wedding to Diana less than a week before her only daughter was born. Doria had watched it on television.
When the service was over and the bride and groom began to make their way out, it was Charles who sought her out.
They walked together, exchanging small talk, as they followed the happy couple out into the sunshine. It was a nice touch.
Doria, elegant in a peppermint suit and side beret, settled down after that but not once could you say she looked truly relaxed. Who could blame her?
It was the day her daughter, the former Suits actress, joined a much longer-running show called the monarchy. Doria is now part of the family too, but with much lower billing than her daughter.
And that, one imagines, probably suits this enigmatic, private woman just fine.
‘Charles sought her out… it was a nice touch’
Windsor Greys. By 9.30am the guests started to arrive, an eclectic mix of friends and the A-listers who populate Meghan and Harry’s powerful and internationally interconnected world, George and Amal Clooney, the Beckhams, Idris Elba, Elton John, Serena Williams and Oprah Winfrey.
The seating plan in the quire, right by the high altar, was evidence of the democratic nature of the day.
On the bride’s side Meghan’s best friends Jessica Mulroney, Misha Nonoo and Markus Anderson faced the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and other senior royals.
Prince Harry, 33, with his wedding wingman Prince William, was first spotted walking down to the chapel in the doeskin frockcoat uniform of his regiment, the Blues and Royals. He’d kept his now customary ginger beard.
By then all the other senior royals were already inside St George’s, having entered by the ornate iron door of the 13th Century Galilee porch. For Kate Middleton it was her first public appearance since the birth of Prince Louis last month. If there was one piece of unshakeable protocol yesterday it was the arrival of the Queen. She was the last to appear at 11.55am.
she had chosen a lime green and lilac Stewart Parvin dress and coat, with an Angela Kelly hat and the diamond Richmond Brooch.
The 96-year-old Duke of Edinburgh was well enough to attend the service after hip surgery six weeks ago.
And then, at a minute to midday, Meghan alighted from the vintage maroon Rolls-Royce Phantom IV which had collected her and her mother from Cliveden, the country house hotel 10 miles away where she had spent her last night as a commoner.
Her boat-necked long-sleeved dress by Clare Waight Keller stunned in its unexpected simplicity. Her cathedral length veil, also made by the Givenchy designer, cascaded over a casual bun pinned at the nape of her neck.
Its intricate design incorporated 53 flowers, one from each of the Commonwealth countries, doubtless a nod to a role the new Royal plans to embrace.
Meghan’s ‘something borrowed’ was Queen Mary’s rarely seen 1932 diamond bandeau tiara from the Queen’s personal collection, a regal vote of confidence which completes Meghan’s welcome into the family.
Outside the chapel, the bride was absolutely composed, despite the absence of a father figure to walk her down the aisle.
She paused only to let two of her page boys, the seven-year-old twin sons of her friend Jessica Mulroney pick up her veil.
One of the boys, Brian, his gap-toothed mouth agape in a huge ‘Oh’ of excitement, effectively photobombed the bride. The resulting image instantly went viral, making him a small, dimplecheeked symbol of the big day.
This was the moment the former actress stepped into the biggest, brightest spotlight of her life.
She climbed the West Steps, flanked by hedges of vivid, verdant green foliage with white roses and blowsy peonies to make a truly spine-tingling entrance to a Handel Introit sung by Welsh soprano Elin
She comported herself with a quiet dignity that some of her former relatives would do well to note’ ‘The last great Royal Wedding of this generation’
Manahan Thomas. Inside, Meghan’s tiny white bridal posy – which included forget-me-nots, Diana’s favourite flower and blooms picked personally by Harry from their own garden – was mirrored and magnified by five exuberant floral arches across the vaulting pale stone pillars of the organ loft.
The service was conducted by the Dean of Windsor, the Rt Reverend David Conner, and the couple were married by The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. The bride and groom looked lovingly at each other, laughed and linked fingers. At one point Harry could be seen stroking Meghan casually with his thumb.
He also took the opportunity to break with tradition by choosing to wear a wedding ring. Hers is from a lump of Welsh gold, a privilege accorded by the Queen to all royal brides. His is textured platinum, the precious silvery metal chosen by the couple for its durability.
And so, finally, rings on, vows made, prayers offered, all the cares, the controversy and the chaos caused by Meghan’s father Thomas Markle being unable to give her away faded.
When the couple began their first walk as husband and wife, back through the quire and down into the nave, the royal family and Mrs Ragland waved them off. The crowds could be heard cheering through the thick stone walls of St George’s as they’d made their wedding vows.
So when the couple appeared in their carriage to begin their 25- minute procession around town and down The Long Walk back to Windsor Castle, the streets erupted. Union Flags and Stars and Stripes were waved, children held up for a better view, plastic champagne glasses were raised to the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex. For almost half an hour, with an escort from the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals, the couple enjoyed the public’s congratulations and adulation. Then it was time for the festivities to start. The Queen hosted a reception in St George’s Hall for the 600 guests who been at the church service.
They ate canapes made from Scottish langoustines, English asparagus and Windsor lamb, and bowl food including pea and mint risotto and Windsor pork belly.