Meghan Markle reveals she suffered a miscarriage

This year has been a painful one for many people, and Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are no exception. In a heartfelt (and heartbreaking) essay, Meghan revealed that in between giving powerful addresses to graduating classes and suing newspapers for privacy breaches, she and Harry suffered a miscarriage this past summer.“After changing [Archie’s] diaper, I felt a sharp cramp. 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 writes in the New York Times Opinion section, recalling a July morning that started like any other. “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.”The piece, which is titled “The Losses We Share,” goes on to detail Markle’s experience at the hospital, holding Harry’s hand and sharing their grief over the pregnancy loss. She didn’t go into specifics, like how far along she was at the time or who else may have known their news, but she did recall a moment last year during a tour in South Africa. “I was exhausted. I was breastfeeding our infant son, and I was trying to keep a brave face in the very public eye,” she writes.“’Are you OK?’ a journalist asked me. 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 continues. “My off-the-cuff reply seemed to give people permission to speak their truth. But it wasn’t responding honestly that helped me most, it was the question itself. ‘Thank you for asking,’ I said. ‘Not many people have asked if I’m OK.’”That question resonates throughout the rest of Meghan’s piece. She remembers asking Harry that question from her hospital bed, and she poses it in terms of the historical year that everyone has suffered through together, yet alone. Are we OK?

 

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“Are we? This year has brought so many of us to our breaking points. Loss and pain have plagued every one of us in 2020, in moments both fraught and debilitating,” she shares. “We’ve heard all the stories: A woman starts her day, as normal as any other, but then receives a call that she’s lost her elderly mother to COVID-19. A man wakes feeling fine, maybe a little sluggish, but nothing out of the ordinary. He tests positive for the coronavirus and within weeks, he — like hundreds of thousands of others — has died.”Markle also notes the untimely deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in her piece, along with peaceful protests that have turned violent, the U.S. election (which has served to divide many Americans), and the ongoing debate about science in the wake of the pandemic. “We are at odds over the value of compromise,” she continues. “That polarization, coupled with the social isolation required to fight this pandemic, has left us feeling more alone than ever.”Meghan notes that she, too, felt alone after losing her pregnancy, despite discovering that, in a room of 100 women, 10 to 20 of them will have suffered a miscarriage. “Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few,” she says. “Despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.”Markle is the second celebrity to open up about pregnancy loss in the past few weeks: Chrissy Teigen and John Legend suffered a very public loss at 20 weeks, which the model and Cravings author shared on social media with fans. Following the experience, she too wrote an emotional essay. Although Markle doesn’t refer to Teigen directly in her piece, she alludes to her by saluting those who have shared their experiences with the world.“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,” she writes. “We have learned that when people ask how any of us are doing, and when they really listen to the answer, with an open heart and mind, the load of grief often becomes lighter — for all of us. In being invited to share our pain, together we take the first steps toward healing.”[video_embed id='2064901']Before you go: Chrissy Teigen opens up about pregnancy loss in new essay[/video_embed]