Early life and education Patel was born in Cape Town, South Africa and raised in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province. She is the only daughter of Raman Patel, a doctor specializing in family and emergency medicine, and Veena Patel, a teacher of English and History. She has two brothers: Hitesh Patel, a business law and tax expert, and Dinesh Patel, who studied actuarial science and business science and founded his own business called Order-In. Patel is an ancestral Gujarati and was raised in the Hindu faith.[3] Patel was educated at Durban Girls' College where her studies included English, Afrikaans, French, Latin, Biology, Science, mathematics, advanced mathematics and computer science. After completing high school, she moved to Mumbai to study medicine at Jai Hand College and then at Grant Medical College, where her father had studied medicine.[4] Returning to South Africa, Tarina converted her medical credits and joined the honors program in psychology at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Clinical Psychology. However, she has never formally practiced as a psychologist.[5]