Meghan Markle’s mum Doria Ragland has spoken out for the first time in the bombshell new docuseries Harry & Meghan.
The first three episodes of the series joined Netflix this morning, and the final three episodes are set to air on December 15.
In the second episode, Meghan’s mother appears and says: “My name is Doria and I’m Meghan’s mum. The last five years have been challenging. I’m ready to have my voice heard. A little bit of experience as her mum.”
Meghan's mother Doria Ragland is interviewed for the first time in #HarryandMeghanNetflix.
"I'm ready to have my voice heard, that's for sure." pic.twitter.com/3shCOpOIn0
— Ellie Hall (@ellievhall) December 8, 2022
Dorit recalls meeting Prince Harry for the first time, describing his nice manners and how happy they were.
She also speaks about the media frenzy after Harry and Meghan made their relationship public.
She says of the paparazzi: “They would take pictures of different parts of say Skid Row and say that is where I lived and that is where she was from.”
Meghan says: “It was horrible. But I continued to hold the line. Say nothing.”
The episode also looked at some of the headlines in the UK tabloid press about Meghan, including one that read: “Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton”.
Meghan says: “Firstly, I’m not from Compton, I’ve never lived in Compton, so it’s factually incorrect. But why do you have to make a dig at Compton?”
Other headlines shown in the Netflix documentary are “One’s gone GangstER”, and another saying Meghan’s ancestors were a “tailor, a teacher and a cleaner in racially divided Jim Crow South”.
Meghan also recalls hearing a woman call her mother the N-word in Los Angeles, saying: “She was just silent the rest of the drive home, we never talked about it.”
The former Suit star continues: “I’d never in my life heard someone say the n-word. It’s very different to be a minority but not be treated as a minority right off the bar.”
“Obviously now, people are very aware of my race because they made it such an issue when I went to the UK. But before that, most people didn’t treat me like a black women so that talk didn’t have to happen for me.”
Dorit says: “As a parent, in hindsight absolutely I would like to go back and have that real conversation about how the world sees you.”
“I said to her – I remember this very clearly – that this is about race. Meg said, ‘Mommy, I don’t wanna hear that’. I said, ‘You may not want to hear it but this is what’s coming down the pike’.”
Volume I of Harry & Meghan is available to stream on Netflix now, and Volume II will join the streaming giant on December 15.
