Meghan Markle joined by mum Doria Ragland at palace event

They say two’s company and three’s a crowd – but not when you’re power couple Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and the third addition is her beloved mother Doria Ragland.

The trio couldn’t help but please when they hosted a reception at Kensington Palace on Thursday to support the Duchess of Sussex in the promotion of her first solo project as a royal: charity cookbook Together.

While many would have recognised her from the royal wedding, Doria greeted guests at the launch by saying: “Hi, I’m Meg’s mom.”

Looking every bit as elegant and regal as her daughter, she was dressed in loose-fitting tan trousers and had a peach shawl draped over her shoulders.

Meghan meanwhile, opted for a blue coat by Canadian brand Smythe, which retails for around AU$1,300, and a rollneck top by Tuxe paired with a black Misha Nonoo skirt.

The event marked Doria’s first public engagement since attending her daughter’s wedding on May 19, and it seems she flew to the UK especially for the occasion after she was seen leaving Los Angeles earlier this week.

Other guests included members of the local community, representatives from Ebury Press, Al Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre and The Royal Foundation.

The Together cookbook features recipes from the Hubb Community Kitchen, which is made up of a group of women whose area was affected was by the Grenfell Tower fire. Meghan began visiting the kitchen before her wedding to Prince Harry and she wrote the foreword featured in the book.

At the Kensington Palace event, she joined her guests as they prepared a meal, before sitting down to enjoy the food under a large outdoor marquee.

They tucked into home-made dishes including coconut chicken curry, aubergine masala and a range of chapatis and sharing dips, as well as caramelised plum upside-down cake, and spiced mint tea.

Meghan gave a heartfelt speech in which she said she felt ‘privileged’ to know the women of the Hubb Community Kitchen.

“Working on this project for the past nine months has been a tremendous labour of love,” she said.

“I have just recently moved to London and I felt so immediately embraced by the women in the kitchen, by your kindness and to be in this city and be in this room and see how multicultural it was.”

“On a personal level I feel so proud to live in a city with so much diversity. This whole country is represented by the people in the kitchen. It’s pretty outstanding.

“There’s so many people to thank – I’m extremely grateful because this is my first project and I appreciate your support. It truly took a village to see this through. Everyone has embraced this so fully because it has been a passion project for us all.”

The Duchess has been making private visits to the kitchen in the Al Manaar Centre in West London since January and learned the reason why it was only open for two days a week, was down to lack of funding.

Meghan was inspired by how the project empowers women at a grassroots level, and championed the cookbook project as a way of ensuring the kitchen can continue transforming lives and communities through cooking.

Proceeds from the recipe book (priced £9.99) released on Thursday 20 September, will support the Hubb Community Kitchen, helping it to stay open and to thrive, so it can widen its reach to others.

The publication has already topped Amazon’s best sellers list, ahead of its release.