Doria Loyce Ragland (born September 2, 1956) is an American former makeup artist, business owner, yoga instructor, and social worker who worked in the mental health sector from 2015 to 2018. Ragland’s daughter is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Early life
Doria Ragland was born in Cleveland, Ohio to nurse Jeanette Arnold (1929–2000) and her second husband Alvin Azell Ragland (1929–2011), an antiques dealer who sold items at flea markets. Ragland’s maternal grandparents, James and Netty Arnold respectively worked as a bellhop and an elevator operator at the whites-only Hotel St. Regis on Euclid Avenue in Cleveland. When Ragland was a baby, her parents moved to Los Angeles, and later divorced. In 1983, her father married kindergarten teacher Ava Burrow, who is near to Ragland’s age; the two remained close after that marriage also ended in divorce. Ragland has two older maternal half-siblings, Joseph Jr. and Saundra Johnson, and a younger paternal half-brother, Joffrey Ragland.
Career and education
After leaving Fairfax High School, Ragland worked as a makeup artist and met her future husband, Thomas Markle, while employed on the set of the television show General Hospital. She later worked as a travel agent and owned a small business, before filing for bankruptcy in the mid-2000s. Ragland went on to complete a Bachelor of Arts in psychology. In 2011, she earned a Master of Social Work from the University of Southern California. After passing California’s licensing exam in 2015, she was a social worker for 3 years at the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services clinic in Culver City. Ragland has also worked as a yoga instructor.
Personal life
Ragland married lighting director Thomas Markle on December 23, 1979 at Hollywood’s Paramahansa Yogananda Self-Realization Fellowship Temple in a ceremony performed by Brother Bhaktananda. They divorced in 1987. Their daughter, Meghan, was born in 1981. Both parents contributed to raising her. Ragland resides in View Park–Windsor Hills, California, in a house inherited from her father in 2011. She has accompanied Meghan to public events and attended her 2018 wedding to Prince Harry in London. Ragland became a grandmother on May 6, 2019. She flew to the UK to see her grandson, Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, and his parents. In July, she attended Archie’s christening at the private chapel at Windsor Castle.