Before royal titles, global headlines, and relentless media scrutiny, Meghan Markle was simply a girl growing up in Los Angeles, navigating a world that rarely made space for complexity. Her story did not begin with privilege or palace gates. It began with microwave dinners, long afternoons alone after school, and the quiet question many children ask but few admit out loud: where do I belong?
Born to a Black mother and a white father, Meghan grew up acutely aware of how quickly the world categorizes people. She has spoken openly about the confusion that came with being biracial in spaces that demanded simple labels. Too often, strangers questioned her family itself—assuming her mother, Doria Ragland, was a nanny rather than a parent. Those moments, small but frequent, shaped how Meghan understood identity, bias, and visibility long before she had language for any of it.
Her childhood was practical rather than glamorous. She described herself as a latchkey kid, returning to an empty house while her parents worked demanding jobs. Her father, Thomas Markle Sr., worked in television, while her mother built a career as a makeup artist and yoga instructor. Dinner often meant fast food or TV trays, with Jeopardy! playing in the background. These routines, far from deprivation, became lessons in independence and gratitude.
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