Proud Fans Prince Harry & Doria Ragland Support Meghan Markle At Cookbook Launch

Doria Ragland, Meghan Markle, and Prince Harry at the lunch celebrating Meghan’s new cookbook. Photo: BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images

Meghan Markle’s beloved mother, Doria Ragland, made her way to Kensington Palace this week, attending the Thursday launch of her daughter’s cookbook at Kensington Palace. Ms. Ragland doesn’t plan on turning up at future royal engagements, but Vanity Fair confirms rumors that Meghan’s mom may well be getting her own quarters in London so that she can spend more time with her daughter and Prince Harry. Doria Ragland is liked very much by the entire royal family and is being encouraged to spend more time with her daughter and extended new family.

The cookbook was Meghan’s idea, although Katie Nicholl writes that the Duchess of Essex took no credit for ‘Together: Our Community Cookbook’, which benefits victims of the 2017’s Grenfell Tower fire in West London. ‘Together’ was birthed by the Hubb Community Kitchen, a group of women who came together after the fire to cook for the families of those who lost homes in the fire.

The luncheon menu featured coconut chicken curry, aubergine masala, baba ganoush, and chapatis. Several guests hailed from the Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre of West London, where the Hub Community Kitchen is based. For dessert, guests enjoyed caramelized plum upside-down cake, sweet puff pastries, and mint tea, of course.

In her speech, Meghan called the project “a tremendous labor of love,” thanking the women of Hubb for embracing her when she moved to London. “I feel so proud to live in a city that can have so much diversity. It’s 12 countries represented in this one group of women. It’s pretty outstanding.” She added, “The power of food is more than just the meal itself; there’s the story behind it. When you get to know the story and the recipe, you get to know the person behind it. That’s what we’re talking about in terms of coming together, to really engage and talk and be able to celebrate what connects us, rather than what divides us. That, I believe, is the ethos of Together.”

Ragland, who told guests to call her Meghan’s mom, reportedly embraced each of the women from Hubb, telling them “I am just as excited as you are.” As she said good-bye to the group, she told the Daily Telegraph, “The power of women. We make things happen. We’re curious, we say yes. We show up.”