Prince Harry is Enjoying a Close Relationship with This Family Member Amidst Continued Strain with King Charles and Prince William

Though she may not be a member of the royal family, she is quite regal.

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Prince Harry
(Image credit: Getty)

Unfortunately, Prince Harry’s relationship with many of the members of his family remains strained, but the upside? He has grown increasingly close with wife Meghan Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, The Mirror reports.

Doria Ragland

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Not only are Harry and Doria going from “strength to strength,” the outlet reports, but they see one another frequently, as Harry and Meghan (and their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet) now live in Meghan’s native California, where Doria also calls home. Harry’s relationship with his father, King Charles, and older brother, Prince William, remains fractured (and his mother, Princess Diana, was tragically killed in a car accident in 1997, when Harry was 12), but, on the brighter side, “Harry is said to enjoy a close relationship with Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland,” The Mirror writes. Hello reports the two have spent summer breaks and anniversaries together, and an expert suggests that Doria will “play a big role in creating a special Christmas” for her two grandchildren this year.

Doria Ragland

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Doria Ragland

(Image credit: Getty Images)

When Harry and Doria first met, she said of him (per The Mirror) “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.” The admiration was mutual: “Her mum’s amazing,” Harry said of Doria.

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Doria Ragland

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Doria Ragland

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Doria was with Harry and Meghan this past May when the three were involved in a car chase in New York City after leaving an awards ceremony in the city. The Mirror reports that Doria was particularly “terrified” by the ordeal; Harry and Meghan said that the chase could have been fatal, and that the pursuit “involved six blacked-out vehicles with unidentified people driving recklessly and endangering the convoy and everyone around them,” the outlet writes.

Doria Ragland

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Doria Ragland

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Though that was a terrifying experience Harry and his mother-in-law endured together, the happy times have outweighed anything else—in 2021, it was reported that Doria moved into Harry and Meghan’s Montecito home to be on hand after the birth of Lilibet, and was said to be “overjoyed” at the birth of her granddaughter. When Archie was born in 2019—back when Harry and Meghan were still living in the U.K.—Doria flew to London to be present for his arrival.

Doria is typically fiercely private, but did appear in the fourth episode of Harry Meghan, the couple’s docuseries on Netflix. She became understandably emotional when describing the darkest time in Meghan’s life, wiping away tears as she heartbreakingly said she “couldn’t protect” her only child. “I remember her telling me that, that she’d wanted to take her own life,” Doria said. “And that really broke my heart because I knew that it was bad. To constantly be picked at by these vultures, just picking away at her spirit—that she would think of not wanting to be here.” 

Doria Ragland

(Image credit: Getty Images)

As Harry and Meghan navigate life in California, Doria is an anchor, per OK. “Doria is said to enjoy a close relationship with Harry and continues to be a pillar of strength for Meghan,” a source said, per the outlet. As to Harry’s relationship with Charles, “It’s not sustainable for the King, who is the national symbol of unity, to be on such bad terms with his son that they haven’t been pictured together in years,” they said. “Ultimately, Charles has not just a personal but also a strategic need to resolve the issue.” They continued “It has been reported that Charles wants an apology from Harry, but that’s far from the case. [Charles] wouldn’t expect that. He knows the Windsors are a stubborn lot, and Harry is no exception. The quid-pro-quo is, can Harry accept that he won’t be getting an apology, either?”

King Charles and Prince Harry at a royal engagement

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The new “will-they-or-won’t-they” question is now whether Harry and Meghan (as well as potentially Archie and Lili) will attend the King’s seventy-fifth birthday celebration, held in roughly two weeks’ time around Charles’ big day on November 14. As always, we remain hopeful.

Rachel Burchfield
Rachel Burchfield
Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.