Look that hooked Meghan’s dad

As Harry’s girl said of her parents who may soon be his in-laws... ... and here, for the f irst time, are the charming school photos showing just what Meghan meant

FRESH-FACED and full of hope for the future, she could, surely, never in her wildest dreams have imagined that her daughter would one day grow up and fall in love with a prince.

This is Meghan Markle’s mother as a teenager with captivating looks, seen in an enchanting photo published for the first time here today.

Doria Ragland was just 16 and an outstanding pupil at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles when these pictures were taken for the school yearbook in 1972. Her life then revolved around her studies, listening to Marvin Gaye and funfilled nights at a local Mexican taco joint with friends.

But just seven years later, Doria would fall head over heels in love with Thomas Markle, a handsome Hollywood lighting director 12 years her senior. Meghan has previously said of their romance: ‘I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her afro plus their shared love of antiques. Whatever it was, they married and had me.’

The pair married in 1979. And two years later their beloved only daughter Meghan was born.

If speculation proves to be correct, Meghan may soon be engaged to Prince Harry, her boyfriend of the past 18 months.

Harry has already met Doria, most notably at the Invictus Games in Toronto in September. For friends of Doria, who remember her as a ‘whip smart’ member of the school’s Apex Club – a class for exceptionally bright pupils – the notion that the young girl who loved flares and fashion is now mingling with the Royals is a modern-day fairytale.

‘Doria, who was nicknamed Dodi at school, was a beautiful girl, inside and out,’ recalls Jennifer Caldwell, 61, a retired pharmaceutical company executive. ‘She had this beautiful afro hairstyle she was so proud of and she was always into fashion.

‘She was always smiling, whip smart and sociable. After she passed her driving test she would borrow her mother’s car and we’d go to places like Tico’s, a cheap taco place which had long queues. We didn’t have much money but we had fun.’

Doria’s father Alvin ran an antiques shop and her mother was a nurse. The modest fam-

I like to think he was drawn to her sweet eyes and her afro, plus their shared love of antiques… whatever it was, they married and had me

ROYAL DATE: Doria with Harry and Meghan at the Invictus Games. Right: Tom Markle with Meghan, then aged 11 SCHOOL DAYS: Doria Ragland in her yearbook photo, aged 16. Above: Aged 18, Tom Markle, the man she would later marry and with whom she would...