- A romance novel inspired by Meghan Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, is set to go on sale later this year.
- The Royal Holiday came to be following a tweet in November last year, in which a royal family fan joked about needing the story of a single mom who’s daughter became a duchess.
- The story was sparked by claims that Doria was reportedly invited by the Queen to spend Christmas with Meghan and the rest of the royal family last year.
With Baby Sussex due in just a matter of weeks now, and Meghan Markle taking it easy at Frogmore Cottage ahead of their new arrival, it was looking like it could be a little quiet on the royal news front. Oh, but don’t worry—someone’s written a romance novel inspired by Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, so that should be enough to keep us all ticking over for a while.
Revealed by Vulture to be a thing that is really happening, The Royal Holiday is a book that’ll soon be coming your way. Quiet and unassuming Doria, who likes to remain out of her daughter’s duchess spotlight as much as possible, inadvertently sparked the fiction book back in November last year.
It all started when reports claimed that 62-year-old Doria, who lives a private life in California, had been invited by the Queen herself to join Meghan, Prince Harry, and the rest of the royal family for Christmas. That news lead to a tweet from royal family fan Margaret H. Willison, who joked/stated that she would immediately “NEED a charming romance about the single mother of a new Duchess falling in love with an appropriately aged royal retainer while spending Christmas at Sandringham.”
And, of course, someone really did that. Romance writer Jasmine Guillory happily stepped up to the task, and has written the heartwarming story of Vivian Forest. Her daughter, a successful stylist, asks Vivian to accompany her across the pond to style a British royal, and it’s not long until Vivian falls for Malcolm, the Queen’s private secretary.
Unfortunately, as far as we know, there’s no truth to the charming story, and Doria Ragland has in fact not fallen for the Queen’s IRL private secretary, The Rt. Hon. Edward Young CVO. It’s a real shame, actually.
Anyway, The Royal Holiday will go on sale October 1, and will sit nicely on the bookshelf alongside Meghan Markle’s charity cookbook, and maybe also that autobiography that her dog wrote last year. Wow, my literature tastes are really broadening by the day.
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