Meghan Markle and Her Mom Weren't Even Allowed to Go Out for Coffee When She Was a Working Royal
How isolating and restrictive was Meghan Markle's life as a duchess in the U.K.? Royal reporter Omid Scobie, days after Meghan's big interview with Oprah, shared new details about how little she was allowed to do when she was a working senior royal family member in England.
Meghan spoke to Oprah about not being allowed to leave the Palace, even when she wanted to get treatment because she was struggling with suicidal ideation. The firm made her turn over everything that would allow her to move around the world freely when she first married in: "You couldn't just go," she said. "I mean, you have to understand as well, when I joined that family, that was the last time, until we came here [to North America], that I saw my passport, my driver's license, my keys. All that gets turned over."
Scobie added in a recent op-ed for Harper's Bazaar that Meghan was unable to even go out for coffee with her mother Doria Ragland—or even have her mom go out for her. And that concerned Ragland, understandably.
Scobie wrote, "Lunch with friends could have momentarily lifted her spirits, but social outings were dismissed by royal family members and aides who said it would be better to lie low. Her image was 'everywhere right now,' they told her. Her isolated existence stood out in particular to her worried mother, Doria Ragland, who during a summer 2019 visit to Frogmore Cottage was surprised to discover that neither she nor her daughter was able to go out into Windsor town to pick up coffees. 'You’re stuck in here,' Doria told Meghan at the time, according to a source."
Meghan and Harry, of course, gained their freedom back after they stepped back from their senior royal family roles last year. They now live in Montecito, California and enjoy much more privacy and independence.
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