For many couples, marriage is a step in their relationship that follows several months, or often years, of dating before deciding to take the plunge and tie the knot.
For Meghan Markle it took a year of dating Prince Harry to realise he was “the one” she wanted to spend the rest of her life with; while Prince William and Kate Middleton enjoyed an eight-year courtship before saying “I do.” However, Meghan's mother Doria Ragland defied convention and married Meghan’s father Thomas Markle after a whirlwind romance lasting just a few short months together - much to the surprise of her family.
The first any relatives heard of the wedding, was when the invitations arrived, revealed Joseph Johnson in an interview with The Mail on Sunday. "None of the family knew anything about Tom until we got the wedding invitations,” he admitted.
But how did the couple meet and what was their wedding like? First Meetings Thomas and Doria first met in the late 1970s on the set of US medical drama General Hospital, where they were both heavily involved in the backstage production of the show.
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