Meghan Markle was feted by her newfound celebrity pals and recent co-stars on Wednesday at a posh baby shower held at The Mark in New York City, while across the country her mother was seen walking alone in Los Angeles.
Photos obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com show Doria Ragland heading out to run errands in California around the same time a harp and cotton candy machine were being rolled into The Mark for her daughter’s shower.
Ragland, who was dressed in black from head-to-toe, was seen carrying a box to her car and then heading back inside to grab a a container of food and some soup as she jumped into her car and drove off just before noon.
It is unclear if Markle plans to meet up with her mother before the birth of her first child with Prince Harry, as she is scheduled to travel to Morocco this weekend before hosting a second, more intimate baby shower in London.
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Markle has been the focus of much attention ever since DailyMail.com photographed her leaving pal Misha Nonoo’s Greenwich Village duplex in the city on Monday night.
She spent Tuesday gallivanting around town with former Suits co-star Abigail Spencer, tennis great Serena Williams, Nonoo and Canadian gal pal Jessica Mulroney.
Markle and Spencer grabbed lunch together before being joined by the rest of the group for dinner at The Polo Bar, the swank New York eatery owned by designer Ralph Lauren.
Then, on Wednesday, she welcomed even newer friends to her party at The Mark, including human rights lawyer Amal Clooney and Gayle King, who scored an invitation despite being kept off the guest list at Markle’s wedding.
There was not a single person in attendance though who has known Markle, 37, for more than a decade.
Ragland’s absence also meant that Markle had not one family member at the party, including new sister-in-law Kate Middleton, though baby showers have never been a British tradition.
Princess Beatrice, who works in New York as the Vice President of Partnerships and Strategy at the software company Afiniti, was also not in attendance.
It was similar in many ways to her wedding last May, where it was Prince Charles who was tasked with walking Markle down the aisle as the relationship between the Duchess of Sussex and her father became increasingly fraught.
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Ragland has made a point to avoid the spotlight ever since her daughter and Prince Harry announced their engagement.
She did stay in England for a few days before and after the royal wedding, but then quickly made her way back to California.
There had been a number of reports at the time claiming that she had worked out a deal with Oprah Winfrey to film an interview with the legendary talk show queen, but those all proved to be false.
In fact, Ragland has yet to give a single interview about her daughter save for a few passing comments to camera crews.
That has not been the case with the rest of Markle’s family, particularly her half-sister Yvonne, who now goes by Samantha.
She too was not among the invited guests at Markle’s shower.
That is due in large part to her decision to write a tell-all about her half-sister, the title which is The Diary of Princess Pushy’s Sister.
‘The title is a mockery of the media,’ Samantha previously told the Daily Mail.
‘It wasn’t me who called Meg “pushy”, it was the tabloid newspapers. She is not pushy. The book isn’t going to be negative — it’s a warm, witty, honoring book — unfortunately, the negative sing-song has gone round the world.’
Samantha has been both fawning and brutal with her comments about Meghan, depicting the Suits actress as opportunistic and calculating in interviews earlier this year before doing a complete about face over the past few months.
Markle has said nothing about his older sister.
Doria met Meghan’s father Thomas Markle on the set of the General Hospital when she was temping on the soap opera and he was working in the lighting department.
They divorced when Meghan was six and both parents spent a considerable amount of time with their daughter,
Samantha and her brother Thomas Jr are the children of Thomas and his first wife Roslyn.
SOURCE: Daily Mail, by
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