Why Meghan Markle’s cutting five-word verdict on Prince Archie’s ties with the Royal Family

Meghan Markle’s mother Doria Ragland has alluded to a tussle behind the scenes of the Firm as to whom Prince Archie belongs.

In unearthed footage, below, from the Duke and Duchess of Sussexes’ self-titled Netflix documentary ‘Harry & Meghan’, Ragland defended her daughter’s decision to stand up for her child and for her wish to bring the young prince up the way she sees fit.

Ragland said: “It’s almost like it’s not your child, it’s the instituions child. She’s [Meghan] saying ‘no, this is my baby’.”

In the 2022 documentary, Ragland also admitted that “the last five years have been challenging.”

Recalling how Meghan, 43, first told her she was dating Harry, Doria said: “We were on the phone and she says, ‘Mummy, I’m going out with Prince Harry,’ and I start whispering, ‘Oh my God’.”

“And so it was from the beginning, it was very sort of, ‘Oh my God, nobody can know,’ ” she continued.

Doria said she noticed that Prince Harry was “handsome” and “really nice” upon first meeting him, with “really great manners.”

“And they looked really happy together,” she added. “Once it was announced that they were together, it seemed kind of like a novelty.”

Express.co.uk exclusively revealed in January that Meghan’s 67-year-old yoga teacher mum had taken up residence in the Sussexes’ guesthouse on the grounds of their Californian mansion to help the couple through “tough times”.

The source said the move was to avoid a nearly three-hour car journey from her home in View Park-Windsor Hills in Los Angeles to the couple’s Montecito home.