There’s always been something very ugly about the way certain sections of the British media talk about Doria Ragland. Meghan Sussex's mother is a woman who has largely kept her private life private. She hasn’t sold family stories, briefed journalists or given interviews about her daughter's marriage. She has simply got on with her life.
And yet, for some people - white, British men especially - that seems to be an invitation to invent a darker one for her.
Enter Tom Bower, a man whose interest in Meghan appears to have developed into something far beyond ordinary royal commentary. Having spent years attacking Meghan and Harry, he has now turned his attention to Meghan's mother. And the things he has said about her are truly shocking.
Bower has suggested that Doria has a past she wants to hide. He’s described her as a well-known consumer of cannabis and other hard drugs. He’s even suggested that she was involved in selling drugs and that she disappeared from Meghan's childhood while plying this supposed trade. He also makes claims about her sex life - claiming that the disgraced Thomas Markle Sr, who’s currently being investigated for sexual abuse of children - told him so.
These are extremely serious claims about a real woman. Claims that could damage her reputation and cause deep distress to her family. Bower, of course, can’t provide any evidence or records, any more than Carole Malone could when she went on air to make similar claims. Yet Bower throws out accusations, leaves the reader to fill in the gaps and somehow expects us to accept the result as serious biography. It isn't.
The stories people like Bower tell about Doria aren’t appearing in a vacuum. They sit within a long history of racist ideas about Black women, drugs, sex and motherhood.
For generations, Black women have been painted as immoral, dangerous, sexually available and unfit mothers. Their lives have been judged by standards that are rarely applied in the same way to white women. Their independence has been treated as evidence of bad character. Their sexuality has been used against them. Their motherhood has been questioned.
The drug allegations are especially revealing. In the United States, Black people have long been portrayed as a particular threat when it comes to drugs. In the early twentieth century, newspapers helped spread the racist idea that Black people were especially linked to cocaine and crime. Black women were even given the label of drug-dealing queens in sensational newspaper stories. These ideas helped shape public attitudes, policing and punishment.
And now we’re expected to accept a familiar collection of accusations - without any evidence being presented - about a Black mother: drugs, sexual behaviour, questionable motherhood and a supposedly dark past.
One has to ask why these particular stories are so attractive to the British people determined to bring Doria down.
We’ve been here before. In December 2025, GB News commentator Carole Malone had to apologise on air after falsely claiming that Doria had been in prison while Thomas Markle raised Meghan. Malone admitted that she had repeated misinformation she had seen online. She acknowledged that the claim was false and apologised to Doria and her family. She also accepted that Doria had raised Meghan and had never been in prison or jail.
Now we have another round of allegations about Doria’s past - though Bower is particularly misogynistic and vicious.
Doria isn’t some mysterious figure whose life needs to be explained by a man with an obsessive grudge against her daughter. She’s a woman with a life, a career and a family. She has a master's degree in social work from the University of Southern California. She has worked in mental health, including with older people, and has also been a yoga teacher.
Meghan has spoken warmly about watching her mother care for older people and about the lessons she learned from her. She’s described a woman who combines kindness, independence and a great sense of fun.
In a 2017 interview with Glamour, Meghan spoke about her mother's work in social care and her lifelong interest in helping others. She has also described how Doria introduced her to yoga when she was just seven years old.
Doria has also shown extraordinary restraint. She hasn’t spent years giving interviews to attack people - even people who attacked her daughter. She hasn’t turned her family into a public soap opera or made a living from trading private stories. She has maintained her dignity. A striking contrast between the way Doria conducts herself and the behaviour of the men who seem unable to leave her alone.
Bower's fixation on Meghan has been well documented. In March 2026, Harry and Meghan responded to his latest book by saying that he had crossed the line from criticism into fixation. They also pointed to his previous statement that the monarchy depended on "obliterating" the Sussexes. That’s not the language of someone who’s interested in fair and balanced reporting.
The white men at the centre of the British establishment press give the white man at the centre of the Markle family story, Thomas Markle Snr, a platform to tell his version of events. His words have been treated as valuable material for endless newspaper stories. The Black woman who has largely refused to play this game is subjected to vile rumours about drugs, sex and motherhood.
Thomas Snr himself admitted to staging photographs for the press before Meghan's wedding. He admitted to going to Asia to buy sex. He’s now at the centre of child abuse investigation in the Philippines and in the US. Yet the media circus around Meghan has repeatedly found new ways to question her character and that of her mother.
If Bower has evidence for his claims, he should present it. If he doesn’t, he should stop making them. It really is that simple.
There is a difference between examining someone's public life and trying to destroy their reputation through insinuation. There is a difference between criticism and cruelty. And there is a difference between biography and a prolonged exercise in character assassination.
Note: I have deliberately chosen not to link to the video of Tom Bower making these vile accusations. I have no intention of sending clicks, views or advertising revenue his way by helping to monetise this sort of character assassination.