According to a royal expert, Prince Harry misjudged the relationship his future wife, Meghan Markle, would have with his own family during an interview before they got married.
Daniela Elser claims the relationship between Meghan Markle and the British royal family was “doomed” from the start when her then-fiancé, Prince Harry, publicly said the Windsor family would be the “family she never had.”
At the time, many critics hit back at Prince Harry’s comments, saying it was disrespectful and insensitive towards Meghan’s family, particularly her parents — Doria Ragland and Thomas Markle.
Many believed that it was inappropriate of Harry to say these words about Doria Ragland, who had always been a loving and supportive mother to Meghan.
Writing for an Australian news outlet, Daniela Elser also spoke about how little Prince Harry really knew about how things would unfold — thinking naively that Meghan Markle would fit easily into the unique world of the royal family.
Daniela Else said: “In what would be an unfortunate precedent, his impressive work, including an interview with Barack Obama, was largely overshadowed by a personal revelation, in this instance him claiming that his fiance had a great time over the festive period with the Windsors who were the ‘family she never had.”
She added: “The outcry was immediate with social media and clucking British columnists quick to point out that the prince’s words were a tad hurtful to her parents, mother Doria Ragland, and father, Thomas Markle.”
Upon joining the royal family, Meghan Markle had already experienced a high-profile life, finding global fame on the TV series Suits, and later becoming an ambassador for international charity World Vision, which involved addressing states at the United Nations and taking trips abroad.
She arrived with charitable interests and personal ambitions of her own, making it more challenging to conform to the royal family’s way of life.
When Prince Harry made his comments, Meghan Markle had recently joined the royal family for their annual Christmas gathering at Sandringham — an occasion normally reserved for members of the family and their spouses.
Although the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had not yet married by this point, an exception was made for Meghan in 2017.
While Doria Ragland never comments on issues related to the royal family, Thomas Markle Jr., Meghan Markle’s half-brother, responded to the comments at the time to say that the family always found time to see each other even when they were living apart.
He told the Daily Mail: “We were as close as we could be, as tight as we could be, that’s what we were. We’d get together on Christmases, on holidays, on birthdays, on Thanksgiving. It was always somewhere, even though we lived in different parts of the city – we still all got together.”
According to his comments, the Ragland-Markle family would spend Christmas, Thanksgiving, and other special occasions together.
