Doria Ragland ‘regrets’ failing to make daughter Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, more aware of racial prejudice

By Sophie Tanno and Max Foster, CNN

Doria Ragland has described how she realized Prince Harry was “the one” for her daughter Meghan in the highly anticipated Netflix documentary series released Thursday.

In her first extensive public comments, Ragland also admitted fears for her safety and her regrets as a parent. “The last five years have been challenging,” she said.

“I’m ready to have my voice heard, that’s for sure. A little bit of my experience, you know, as her mom.”

Recalling the phone conversation when Meghan first told her that she was dating the royal, Ragland said: “We were on the phone and she says, mommy, I’m going out with Prince Harry and I start whispering, oh my God.

“And so it was from the beginning, it was very sort of, oh my God, nobody can know.”

Ragland said Harry made a good impression during their first meeting. “He was 6’1”, a handsome man with red hair, really great manners.

“He was just really nice. And they looked really happy together. Yeah, like he was the one,” she continued.

“Once it was announced that they were together, it seemed kind of like a novelty.”

Ragland spoke of her regret of failing to make Meghan, who describes herself in the documentary as “mixed race,” more aware of the racial prejudices she would face. In Episode 2, Meghan notes: “Obviously now people are very aware of my race because they made it such an issue when I moved to the UK.

“But before that, most people didn’t treat me like a Black woman so that talk didn’t have to happen for me.”

Her mother admitted: “As a parent, in hindsight I would absolutely like to go back and have that very real conversation about how the world sees you.”

When Meghan began to face negative media attention, Ragland recalled telling her daughter “this is about race,” with Meghan replying: “Mommy, I don’t want to hear that.”

Ragland described in the third episode how she was descended on by paparazzi after Meghan’s relationship with Harry came to light. “I felt unsafe a lot,” she said. “I couldn’t just walk my dog, I couldn’t just go to work.

“There was always someone there waiting for me, following me to work.

“I felt I was being stalked by the paparazzi.”

Buckingham Palace said on Thursday that it will not be commenting on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s new docu-series that was released on Netflix on Thursday.

A royal source told CNN that neither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace, nor any members of the royal family, were approached for comment on the content of the series. The Netflix documentary noted within the series that members of the British royal family “declined to comment on the content.”

The first three episodes of the Netflix series were released on Thursday, with three more scheduled for next week.

Interviews were completed in August, the month before the Queen’s death, according to the series.

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