The former Meghan Markle's mom, Doria Ragland, is letting her voice be heard in Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's new docuseries, "Harry & Meghan."
In Episode Two, Ragland, 66, said that the "last five years have been challenging." By that, she's referring to her daughter's romance with Prince Harry, King Charles and Princess Diana's youngest son, which began 2016.
Ragland was in attendance at their star-studded 2018 wedding and met members of the royal family including Queen Elizabeth II, but hasn't spoken publicly about her daughter's turmoil. The mom of one said that she’s finally ready to speak out about what’s been happening with her daughter.
In the Netflix docuseries, which was produced by three production companies, including Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Productions, Ragland recalled the first time her daughter told her that she was dating Harry.
"When she told me, we were on the phone and she says, 'Mommy, I'm going out with Prince Harry. And I started whispering, 'Oh my God.' She says, 'You can't tell anyone.'"
Ragland said that when she met Harry for the first time, she recalled him being a "handsome man with red hair," who had "really great manners."
"He was just really nice," she said.
And when she saw her daughter interact with Harry, Ragland knew that they "looked really happy together, like he was the one" for Meghan.
However, things soon took a turn when the public found out that Harry and Meghan were dating in October 2016. At that point in time, Ragland said it felt like the couple's relationship was treated "like a novelty" in the news.
In the docuseries, Meghan recalled all the backlash she got for dating Harry. She said the UK media would write inaccurate stories about her life and would bring attention to the fact that she was a biracial, with a Black mother and a white father.
It’s “very different to be a minority, but not be treated as a minority right off the bat. I’d say now people are very aware of my race because they made it such an issue when I went to the U.K,” Meghan explained.
Meghan said that before she started dating Harry, people didn't "treat her like a Black woman," and so a "talk" about racism "didn't have to happen for (her)."
After seeing what Meghan experienced in the media, including racist headlines, Ragland said that she would “absolutely” go back to have a "talk" with her.
"As a parent, in hindsight, I'd like to go back and have that kind of real conversation about how the world sees you," she said.
Ragland said she did try to prepare Meghan as coverage began. During the first week their relationship began public, British tabloids ran headlines saying Meghan was from a "gang-scarred" part of L.A. and was "straight outta Compton."
“They would take different parts of Skid Row (a neighborhood in L.A.) and say that was where I lived, and that was where she was from,” Ragland said.
"I said to her, I remember this very clearly, 'This is about race," Ragland says. "Meg said, 'Mommy, I don't want to hear that.' I said, 'You may not want to hear it, but this is what's coming down the pike,'" Ragland said.
Days after the relationship went public, Kensington Palace issued a rare statement condemning the “wave of harassment” Meghan had experienced.
“Some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and Web article comments,” the statement read in November 2016.
Harry explained, "When my kids grow up and they look back at this moment and turn to me and say, 'What did you do in this moment?' I want to be able to give them an answer."