OPRAH Winfrey has opened up about her April meeting with Meghan Markle’s mum, Doria.

The US television mogul hosted Ms Ragland to an afternoon visit at her California mansion in April, just three weeks before the royal wedding.

Speaking to Entertainment Tonight at the premiere of her new TV series Love Is in Los Angeles, Winfrey said that she and Ragland spent the afternoon together at her home, bonding, doing yoga, and eating cumquats from her garden.

However, Winfrey also used the opportunity to hit back at reports she had showered Ragland with gifts with the purpose of doing an interview about her daughter Meghan’s marriage to Prince Harry.

“The story was that Meghan’s mom had come to my house and she left laden with gifts,” Winfrey told Entertainment Tonight.

“You know what the gifts were? First of all, she’s great at yoga, so I said, ‘Bring your yoga mat and your sneaks in case we just want to do yoga on the lawn.’

“So one of the bags was a yoga mat and the other was lunch.”

Winfrey also revealed that the pair ate a dessert made from cumquats freshly picked from the TV mogul’s extensive garden.

“She said, ‘I love cumquats,’ and I said, ‘I have a cumquat tree!’” Winfrey said.

Winfrey also poured cold water on the suggestion that she was buttering Ragland up for an interview and that, in fact, no sit down was scheduled.

“For all of the people who said I am getting her gifts and I’m trying to bribe her for an interview — they were cumquats,” Winfrey quipped. “If cumquats can get you an interview, I’m all for it!”

Still, rumours won’t die that the two will do a more formal sit-down.

Markle’s estranged sister later Samantha slammed Ragland over her meeting with Winfrey, accusing her of “cashing in”.

Markle opened up about her mother in an essay published by Glamour last August.

“My mum’s a yoga instructor, but she does social work, as well, and she works specifically with the geriatric community,” she wrote.

“For me to watch this level of lifelong sensitivity to nurturing and caregiving, but at the same time my mom has always been a free spirit. She’s got dread locks and a nose ring. She just ran the LA Marathon.

“We can just have so much fun together, and yet, I’ll still find so much solace in her support,’ she added. ‘That duality coexists the same way it would in a best friend.”