HOW DORIA’S THE STEELY SECRET FORCE BEHIND MEGXIT
shows General Hospital and, later, er, Married With Children.
For Thomas it was ‘love at first st sight.’ In a Channel 5 documentary y that was screened last week, he e told how the pair married in 1979 9 in a Buddhist ceremony after a whirlwind courtship. Meghan was born two years later, in n August 1981.
But the marriage foundered d after two years, mostly, accord- ing to Thomas, because of his gruelling work schedule. At one point he was working two jobs to pay for the family’s home in the middle-class suburb of Woodland Hills.
When Thomas’s two teenage children from a previous marriage – Tom Jr and Samantha – came to live with them, Doria became a stepmother.
There was also racism to contend with. When Doria would push Meghan (whom she called ed ‘Flower’) in her pram around the palm- lined streets of Woodland Hills, she would be asked if she was t he nanny. ‘ Doria wasn’t happy. She wanted to move back to the city and that’s what she did,’ Thomas told Channel 5.
When Meghan was 11, she and her father moved into a flat close to her £13,500-a-year private girls’ school, Immaculate Heart.
Some have questioned why Doria ‘gave up’ Meghan to live with her father from 11 to 18, when she went to university. The Mail on Sunday can reveal there was no ‘ giving up’. Doria and Thomas r e mained c l o s e f r i e nds, a nd although Meghan has spoken about how she grew up on the set of General Hospital – the soap which earned her father t wo Emmy awards – she would spend weekends with both parents.
Doria, determined to be financially i ndependent, started a dress- making business called A Change Of A Dress. Ultimately the business would fail, but she went on to earn a master’s degree in social work at the University of Southern California.
Thomas retired from ABC Studios seven years ago and moved to the sleepy beach town of Rosarito in Mexico. But he would continue to stay with Doria during his frequent trips to Los Angeles.
‘ Doria cooks the best Cajun shrimp gumbo, something she taught Meghan,’ said a source.
‘When Tom came to Los Angeles he would stay with Doria. They always remained t he best of fri friends f o r Meghan’s sak sake. Doria would do his l au aundry. He’d stay the night at her place and she’d cook breakfast in the morni ng. This was while she had a boyfriend.
‘There was never any problem until Meghan met Harry.’
Indeed, Thomas, Doria and Meghan spent Thanksgiving 2016 t ogether – after Meghan had started dating Prince Harry – in a house Harry rented in Beverly Hills. There were no servants, just the family.
Doria and Meghan cooked and Meghan even posted a picture to her now-defunct website The Tig of her mother and father’s hands on a gravy bowl.
It was only in the run-up to the
May 2018 wedding, when Thomas made the ill-fated decision to pose for paparazzi pictures, that the happy family unit fell apart.
Thomas had two heart attacks and was unable to walk his daughter down the aisle – a duty which then fell to Prince Charles, who is also said to be a big fan of Doria.
It is unknown whether Doria now has a partner. She has been photographed with a ring on her engagement finger, although it doesn’t appear to be an engagement ring. She did have a longterm boyfriend while Meghan was growing up but it is not known if they are still together.
At present, Meghan and Harry are in Canada fielding offers from US TV companies for the coveted first interview.
Doria is back in Los Angeles where she was photographed on Friday outside her home. Stoic and silent, just as she – and her daughter and son-in-law – like it.
She’s sociable and whip-smart – she wanted to make something of her life