Meghan Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, is not expected to follow her daughter back to Britain when the Duke and Duchess of Sussex leave the United States after six years, according to sources.
The couple are reportedly preparing for a surprise return to the UK in the coming days, with plans to place Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet in British schools.
Ragland, 69, has remained one of the most familiar and steady figures in the Sussex family’s private life since Prince Harry and Meghan stepped back as senior working royals and moved to America in 2020.
She is based in a bungalow in an affluent residential area outside central Los Angeles, less than two hours by car from the Sussexes’ Montecito home.
During visits to Montecito, Ragland has the option of staying in the family’s main nine-bedroom residence or in a separate two-bedroom guesthouse on the estate.
That closeness in distance has allowed her to build a strong relationship with Archie and Lilibet, with Ragland regularly spending time with the children and helping care for them.
Her bond with the young royals stands in sharp contrast to their relationship with their other grandparents, King Charles and Queen Camilla, who reportedly saw Archie and Lilibet in person for the first time in four years during the family’s visit to Highgrove in Gloucestershire in early July.
However, sources told TMZ that Ragland has no plans to relocate to Britain, saying she is settled in California, where she has a wide circle of friends and continues to enjoy her yoga practice.
Doria Ragland with Harry and Meghan at the Women of Vision Awards in New York in 2023
Doria Ragland with then-Prince Charles at Harry and Meghan’s wedding in Windsor in 2018
The publication added that its sources claimed Meghan and Harry’s move back to the UK was a ‘temporary decision’, also describing it as a ‘day-by-day decision’.
The revelation comes after Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir asked in her column today: ‘What’s going to happen to Doria, for a start? Is she being tossed aside like a used hibiscus teabag – or will she be moving here, too?’
Ms Ragland had an important role to play at the time of Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022, as she was in Montecito caring for Archie, then three, and Lilibet, then one.
The Sussexes were already in the UK at the time – after travelling to Manchester for a summit, then Dusseldorf for an Invictus event and then back to London.
They ended up having to extend their stay when Harry’s grandmother died on September 8, remaining to make various public appearances including greeting mourners outside Windsor Castle and attending the funeral on September 19.
The duchess later revealed on her Netflix show With Love, Meghan that the three-week period was the longest she had ever gone without seeing her children, leaving her feeling ‘not well’.
Ms Ragland, a social worker and yoga instructor, has generally avoided the spotlight since attending the royal wedding at Windsor Castle in May 2018.
She sat by herself in a pew at the wedding which was not attended by Meghan’s father Thomas Markle, whom she married in 1979 but divorced in 1987.
But Ms Ragland does sometimes appear in photos and videos shared by her daughter – including in May during a Mother’s Day trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
Meghan posted a photo with Doria Ragland after a Mother’s Day trip to Disneyland in May
Meghan Markle and Doria Ragland in New York in 2015, one year before she met Prince Harry
She joined Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lilibet for the outing, with the duchess later sharing an image of her mother on Instagram accompanied by a red heart.
Ms Ragland was also seen enjoying time with Lilibet in the family’s swimming pool in the California sunshine in footage shared by Meghan in January.
A source told The Mail On Sunday in 2020 that Harry ‘in particular turns to her for advice’ and she is ‘like the Queen – she never complains and never explains’.
They added: ‘She’s laid-back, and people see her nose ring and dreadlocks which are cool – but make no mistake, she has a core of steel. Underestimate her at your peril.
‘Meghan has always trusted her completely but she has become a rock to Harry who, of course, lost his own mother so young. Doria has a great warmth.
‘She’s a brilliant cook and is very motherly, but she isn’t someone who seeks attention, and for Harry her discretion and silence mean the world.’
Harry described Ms Ragland as ‘amazing’ in a BBC interview in 2017 – and she spent six weeks living with the couple at Frogmore Cottage when Archie was born in 2019.
Ms Ragland was born in Ohio in 1956 to a nurse mother and antiques dealer father. She was a baby when they moved to Los Angeles and has lived there ever since.
