Meghan Markle’s Mother Doria Ragland: A Beautiful Teenager with a Fairy Tale Life

Doria Ragland, mother of Meghan Markle, the Suits actress and girlfriend of Prince Harry, was once a beautiful teenager with captivating looks and a bright future ahead of her.

Recently, enchanting photos of Doria as a 16-year-old student at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles were published for the first time.

She was an outstanding pupil, who loved listening to Marvin Gaye and spending fun-filled nights with friends at a local Mexican taco joint.

Doria's life took an unexpected turn when she fell in love with Thomas Markle, a handsome Hollywood lighting director 12 years her senior.

The couple married in 1979 and two years later, their only daughter Meghan was born.

Now, after nearly four decades, speculation is rife that Meghan might soon be engaged to Prince Harry, who has already met Doria.

The idea of a young girl who loved flares and fashion now mingling with the royals is a modern-day fairy tale.

Doria, nicknamed Dodie at school, was a beautiful girl both inside and out.

Jennifer Caldwell, a retired pharmaceutical company executive who knew Doria during her school days, recalls her as being whip-smart and sociable.

She had a beautiful afro hairstyle and was always into fashion.

Despite their limited means, Doria and her friends had fun together, hanging out at cheap taco places like Tico's.

Doria's father, Alvin, ran an antiques shop and her mother was a nurse.

The family lived in a modest home in a black middle-class area of Los Angeles.

Ms. Caldwell remembers that they were innocent and focused on studies, not s**, during a politically charged era when Richard Nixon had just been elected as president.

After leaving school, Doria worked as an air stewardess and then as a makeup artist, which is how she met Tom Markle.

He was already a success in Hollywood, working as a lighting director on hit U.S. television shows.

Tom, now 73 and retired, is also seen for the first time in photos from his 1962 yearbook at Newport High School in Newport, Pennsylvania.

He was heavily involved in school plays and listed his interests as old cars, hunting, and reading.

Meghan credits her parents for her success in life and has talked about growing up in a biracial family and embracing her heritage.

Although Tom and Doria divorced in 1987 when Meghan was just six years old, they remained friends.

Megan calls her mother, who went back to university as a mature student and earned a master's degree in social work, her inspiration.

On Mother's Day last year, Meghan posted a picture of Doria on Instagram with the message, “Always proud of this beautiful woman.”

Doria's life has come full circle from being a young girl with a bright future ahead of her to a mother who has raised a successful daughter.

If rumors of an engagement between Meghan and Prince Harry are true, Doria's fairy tale life will continue to unfold.