Meghan Markle will join Britain’s royal family when she weds Prince Harry this month, but what do we know about Markle’s own family?
Markle, 36, was raised in the Los Angeles area by parents who divorced when she was young.
She has spoken publicly about how her parents, Doria Ragland and Thomas Markle, raised her together despite the end of their marriage.
“What’s so incredible, you know, is that my parents split up when I was 2, [but] I never saw them fight,” Markle told Vanity Fair in 2017. “We would still take vacations together. My dad would come on Sundays to drop me off, and we’d watch ‘Jeopardy!’.”
Markle made reference in an essay for Elle in 2015 to her “ever-complex family tree.”
She only has two half-siblings, both from whom she is estranged and who are on her father’s side.
When Markle weds Harry on May 19, she will instantly join a family that includes Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Prince William and Princess Kate, among many others.
Take a look first at Markle’s family.
Meghan Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland
Ragland is a Los Angeles-based social worker and yoga instructor.
She remains close with her daughter, who flew home to Los Angeles over Easter weekend to visit her mom and update her on her wedding plans.
When Markle and Harry were still dating, Ragland flew to Toronto to be at her daughter’s side as Harry delivered an address at the closing ceremony of the 2017 Invictus Games.
Markle said in her engagement interview with Harry that the couple had “spent a lot of time with” Ragland.
“Her mum’s amazing,” Harry added.
Markle, who shares with Harry a passion for charitable causes, has credited Ragland with making sure she knew about the world’s challenges while growing up in Los Angeles.
The first person in her family to graduate from college (Northwestern University), Markle told Vanity Fair she points to the 1991 and 1992 riots in Los Angeles, sparked by the police beating of Rodney King, as the starting point of her “social awareness.”
“They had let us…