Getting to know your significant other’s parents can be intimidating, even if you happen to be literal royalty. Luckily for Prince Harry, he appears to have won over the heart of girlfriend Meghan Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland.
And lucky for all of us bystanders with our fingers crossed for a royal wedding, that’s one big step towards the altar for everyone’s current favorite couple.
The Daily Mail reports Harry was spotted “deep in conversation” with Ragland over the weekend at the Invictus Games, the charity sporting event in Toronto where Markle has made several high-profile appearances (including one that involved–gasp! –hand-holding) over the past week. At one point, Ragland even “cupped her hand over her mouth conspiratorially as she whispered something to him. ” If that’s not a sign of approval, I’m not sure what is.
Prince Harry was also spotted kissing Markle at the closing ceremony for the games, in what appears to have been a gradual ramp-up of public displays of affection that started with Markle attending the first day of the event but not sitting with Harry and apparently ended with “snuggling, kissing, with their arms around each other,” according to Us Weekly.
It’s a good thing Harry and Ragland, who is a yoga teacher and social worker, get along so well, because Markle and her mother are reportedly very close. The Daily Mail notes that Ragland’s pet name for her daughter is “Flower” and that she “doted” on Meghan throughout her childhood.
In an essay written this year for Glamour, Markle called her mother one of the ten women who changed her life, writing: “My mom’s a yoga instructor, but she does social work, as well, and she works specifically with the geriatric community …For me to watch this level of life-long sensitivity to nurturing and caregiving, but at the same time my mom has always been a free spirit. She’s got dread locks and a nose ring. She just ran the LA Marathon. We can just have so much fun together, and yet, I’ll still find so much solace in her support. That duality coexists the same way it would in a best friend. ”
