Meet the Markles! Meghan Markle and Prince Harry walked down the aisle in May 2018 at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, but only one of her family members was in attendance — her mother, Doria Ragland.
Meghan’s relationship with her relatives has been rocky, at best, since she stepped further into the spotlight. The Suits actress’ father, Thomas Markle, did not attend her nuptials after suffering a heart attack following a paparazzi photo scandal. Harry’s dad, King Charles III, stepped in his place to accompany his daughter-in-law to the altar.
The Duchess of Sussex confronted Thomas about their rift in an August 2018 letter, which the former lighting director shared with Mail on Sunday. “Your actions have broken my heart into a million pieces — not simply because you have manufactured such unnecessary and unwarranted pain, but by making the choice to not tell the truth as you are puppeteered in this,” she wrote. “Something I will never understand.”
Meghan faced similar trouble with her half-sister, Samantha Markle, and half-brother, Thomas Markle Jr. The author lashed out at her younger sibling in the 2019 documentary Meghan and the Markles: A Family at War. “She doesn’t have a heart or she would [have] been doing everything she could to make [Thomas Sr.] comfortable, and reciprocate, and be loving and gracious, and make sure he’s comfortable in his old age,” she said. “So broken heart? No, his heart’s broken. She can’t turn herself into the victim here.”
In the royal couple’s Netflix docuseries that came out in December 2022, the Bench author revealed that she maintains a close bond with her niece, Ashleigh Hale, who is the biological daughter of Samantha.
“I am Meg’s niece,” the immigration attorney revealed in the third episode of Harry & Meghan. “Meg is my aunt on the maternal side of my family. So, she is my biological mother’s half-sister.”
As the couple planned their wedding, Meghan revealed she was “guided” to not invite her niece due to the drama going on with her father and siblings.
“How do we explain that this half-sister isn’t invited to the wedding, but that the half-sister’s daughter is? And so with Ashleigh, the guidance at the time was to not have her come to our wedding,” the “Archetypes” podcast host recalled. “I was in the car with H. I had [Ashleigh] on speakerphone and we talked her through what guidance we were being given and why this assessment was made and that’s painful.”
Despite the drama on her father’s side of the family, the former actress relied on her mom as she and Harry welcomed their first child together in May 2019. Ragland was by her daughter’s side as she gave birth and introduced son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor to her in-laws, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.
Following their move to California, the couple enjoyed Doria’s frequent visits as they welcomed their second child, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, in June 2021.
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Sarah Hearon
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