A GB News presenter has apologised to Meghan Markle’s mother Doria Ragland for falsely claiming on live TV that she had a spell behind bars.
Carole Malone repeated a baseless conspiracy theory she had read online that Ms Ragland was jailed when the Duchess of Sussex was a child so Thomas Markle had to solely care for their daughter.
Ms Malone made the bogus accusation 12 days ago while discussing Mr Markle’s leg amputation in The Philippines and whether Meghan should show him more ‘compassion’.
Her apology has been shared widely on social media by Meghan’s supporters, including Misan Harriman, a photographer and filmmaker who is a very close friend of the Sussexes and rumoured to be the godfather of Lilibet.
GB News received complaints after Carole Malone had said Meghan’s father had ‘brought her up’ and ‘paid for her private education while her mother was in jail’.
She was pressed on this by the panel, who said he ‘had never heard that before ever’. Carole doubled down and said the incarceration was ‘years ago’, adding: ‘Do you want me to give you a precise date and time?’
On Monday she read out an apology to Doria, admitting she has ‘never been in prison or jail’. Carole also said said sorry to ‘her family for any pain my comments may have caused’.
She said: ‘On Thursday December 4 2025, I stated that Thomas Markle, the Duchess of Sussex’s father, brought Meghan up while her mother, Doria Ragland, was in prison.
‘I believed this to be the case based on what I now understand to be misinformation I had seen online. I was questioned about the validity of this claim during the broadcast and I repeated this belief, which I now understand to be false.
‘This was a genuine error. I accept what I have now been told on behalf of Miss Ragland that she raised her daughter, and that she has never been in prison or jail. I apologise sincerely to Miss Ragland and her family for any pain my comments may have caused, and I am happy to set the record straight.’
It came after the Mail on Sunday revealed that Thomas Markle is in hospital in Asia after having a leg amputated.
Thomas, 81, underwent life-saving surgery in the Philippines after a massive blood clot was found in his leg, and has spoken of his desire not to ‘die estranged from Meghan’.
After failing to get hold of him by email or phone, the 44-year-old Duchess – who has not seen him since she married Prince Harry in 2018 – ‘reached out’ to her father in the form of a hand-delivered letter.
The rift between the pair began when Mr Markle worked with a paparazzi photographer near his home in Mexico to stage photographs of him being fitted for a suit ahead of the Royal wedding.
Shortly afterwards he suffered two heart attacks and was forced to pull out of travelling to the UK for the ceremony.
He has never met his son-in-law, the Duke of Sussex, 41, or the couple’s children, Prince Archie, six, and Princess Lilibet, four.
Previously Mr Markle – who was a successful Hollywood lighting director – had been close to Meghan, helping with her fledgling acting career in Los Angeles after he and her mother, Doria Ragland, divorced when the future Duchess was six.
In a 2014 Father’s Day post on her now-defunct lifestyle blog The Tig, Meghan posted a gushing tribute to Mr Markle as ‘the person who believed in this grand dream of mine well before I could even see it as a possibility’.
She fondly recalled him ‘lighting my high school musicals so that they felt as grand as a Broadway show’ and how he ‘put gas in my car when I went from audition trying to make it as an actress’.
‘To my dad – my thoughtful, inspiring, hardworking Daddy – happy Father’s Day.’
In a world exclusive earlier this month, the Daily Mail revealed how Mr Markle was fighting for his life in hospital after moving to the Philippines to be nearer to son Thomas Jr.
Last weekend, in an emotional interview with the Mail on Sunday’s US Editor Caroline Graham, who had flown to his bedside, Mr Markle said he had not heard from Meghan since his illness ‘but would love to speak to her’.
‘I’ve always said I am open to reconciling with my daughter,’ he added.
‘I have never stopped loving her. I don’t want to die estranged from Meghan.
‘I want to meet my grandkids. It might be nice to meet her husband too.’
In the days that followed, it emerged that the Duchess had deleted his phone number following their rift, while an email she sent could not be opened as it was to an account for which he had forgotten the password.
Finally on Wednesday last week, a letter arrived at his hospital bed.
It was hand-delivered by a lawyer with instructions that the encounter was videoed so the clip could be sent back to the Duchess, the Mail on Sunday revealed yesterday.
After ‘fretting’ over what it might contain for four hours, Mr Markle finally opened it and read it several times, but did not reveal anything about its contents.
Mr Markle was last week moved from intensive care to a regular ward as he continues his recovery.
He has also started physiotherapy in order to build up his muscles.
Mr Markle faces a month’s-long rehabilitation, and hopes to have a prosthetic limb fitted once his leg wound has healed.
Read more
- Did Thomas Markle’s dire health emergency prompt a healing gesture from estranged daughter Meghan amidst their long-standing rift?
- Is Thomas Markle’s life-saving leg amputation the shock that could heal his rift with Meghan?
- What health crisis has Meghan Markle’s estranged father, Thomas Markle, faced amidst her royal family drama?
- Will Meghan Markle reunite with her father after his successful leg amputation surgery? Discover the emotional plea he made about healing family rifts.
- Why did Meghan Markle reach out to her estranged father after his critical surgery?
