Meghan Markle's Mother's Touching Gesture Months After Suicidal Thoughts

Meghan Markle's mother did a charity run for suicide prevention years before the world knew her daughter had experienced suicidal thoughts.

Doria Ragland took part in the 21st Annual Alive And Running 5k for Suicide Prevention, in Los Angeles, on September 29, 2019, around nine months after Meghan first told Prince Harry she did not want to be alive anymore.

Meghan's own crisis followed a wave of hostile media coverage at the tail-end of 2018, including a now famous story accusing her of making Kate Middleton cry, which she has said was false.

Doria's 5k run was reported at the time but back in 2019 the full emotional gravity of her support for a cause her own daughter had been affected by was not yet known.

It was only two years later, in March 2021, that Meghan told Oprah Winfrey: "I was really ashamed to say it at the time and ashamed to have to admit it to Harry, especially, because I know how much loss he's suffered.

"But I knew that if I didn't say it, that I would do it. And I... I just didn't... I just didn't want to be alive anymore. And that was a very clear and real and frightening constant thought. And I remember how he just cradled me."

"I went to the institution," she continued, "and I said that I needed to go somewhere to get help. I said that, 'I've never felt this way before, and I need to go somewhere.' And I was told that I couldn't, that it wouldn't be good for the institution."

She described telling Prince Harry for the first time ahead of a planned appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in January 2019, nine months before Doria's run.

Meghan told her Netflix show Harry & Meghan: "It was like, 'all of this will stop if I'm not here.' And that was the scariest thing about it, is it was such clear thinking."

In episode four, Doria told the docuseries: "I remember her telling me that. That she had wanted to take her own life and that really broke my heart because I knew... well I knew that it was bad.

"But to just constantly be picked at by these vultures, just picking away at her spirit. That she would actually think of not wanting to be here, that um... that's not an easy one for a mom to hear."

Wiping away tears, she said: "And I can't protect her. H can't protect her."

Doria's participation in the run came while Meghan and Harry were on a tour of Southern Africa, in which they later gave interviews to ITV journalist Tom Bradby.

Meghan was asked how she had been coping with the pressures of life in the public eye and replied: "Thank you for asking because not many people have asked if I'm okay, but it's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes."

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "988" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent at Newsweek based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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