The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle revealed in an article that she had a miscarriage back in July; describing the unfortunate incident “an unbearable grief”.
“I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second,” Meghan Markle said in the piece about her miscarriage in the New York Times; which she titled The Losses We Share.
She went on to describe how she watched “my husband’s heart break as he tried to hold the shattered pieces of mine”. Meghan wrote that “loss and pain have plagued every one of us in 2020”.
The 39-year-old shared her experience to urge people to “commit to asking others, ‘are you OK?'” over the Thanksgiving holiday in the US.
A source close to the duchess confirmed to the media that Meghan Markle is currently in good health. According to the source, the couple wanted to talk about what happened in July; having come to appreciate how common miscarriage is.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “It’s a deeply personal matter we would not comment on.”
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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry moved to California to live away from the media spotlight; after stepping back as senior royals in January. Their first child, Archie, was born on 6 May 2019.
The duchess began her article by describing a “sharp cramp” she felt while looking after Archie. “I dropped to the floor with him in my arms, humming a lullaby to keep us both calm; the cheerful tune a stark contrast to my sense that something was not right,” Markle wrote.
“Hours later, I lay in a hospital bed, holding my husband’s hand. I felt the clamminess of his palm and kissed his knuckles, wet from both our tears.”
“Staring at the cold white walls, my eyes glazed over. I tried to imagine how we’d heal.” The duchess continued: “Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few.
“In the pain of our loss, my husband and I discovered that in a room of 100 women, 10 to 20 of them will have suffered from miscarriage.”
“Yet despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.
“Some have bravely shared their stories, they have opened the door; knowing that when one person speaks truth, it gives license for all of us to do the same.”
Meghan Markle also referenced a TV interview during her tour of South Africa last year; in which a journalist asked if she was okay. She said she was asked the question at a time when she was “trying to keep a brave face in the very public eye”.
“I answered him honestly, not knowing that what I said would resonate with so many; new moms and older ones, and anyone who had, in their own way, been silently suffering,” she said.
Markle’s miscarriage happened when she was involved in legal action against the Mail on Sunday; over the publication of a letter she wrote to her father. Last month she was granted a postponement of her privacy trial until next year.
