Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, wrote of suffering a miscarriage and the grief that overwhelmed her and husband Prince Harry.
In a New York Times Op-Ed on Wednesday, the former actress, 39, revealed how that day in July changed her life, adding that she chose to share her misfortune to help others “take the first steps toward healing. … Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few,” she wrote. Markle, who married the British prince in 2018, had the couple’s first child, Archie, last year.
In the Times, she detailed having just changed her son’s diaper when she felt a sharp pain. “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second,” she wrote.
She was taken to a hospital, where she wrote about “staring at the cold white walls, my eyes glazed over. I tried to imagine how we’d heal.” It was not clear how far along Markle was in her pregnancy.
In the Times piece titled “The Losses We Share,” Markle said she learned about how so many women suffer silently. “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,” adding that the silence continues “perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.”
Sophie King, a midwife at U.K. child-loss charity Tommy’s, said in a Newsmax story that miscarriage and stillbirth remained “a real taboo in society, so mothers like Meghan sharing their stories is a vital step in breaking down that stigma and shame.
“Her honesty and openness today send a powerful message to anyone who loses a baby. This may feel incredibly lonely, but you are not alone,” King said.
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