Meghan Markle, The Duchess of Sussex, has revealed in a personal essay that she suffered a miscarriage in July.
The former Suits star shared a detailed account of her experience in the hopes of helping other women who have lived through the same trauma.
In the opinion piece, published in The New York Times and titled “The Losses We Share,” the Duchess discloses that she was holding her son, Archie, when she felt a sharp cramp and dropped to the floor.
Humming a lullaby to keep them both calm, she had a feeling something was not right.
“I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second,” Markle writes, penned as “The writer is a mother, feminist and advocate.“
Hours later, she was in the hospital with her husband, Prince Harry, the pair in tears over their heartbreaking loss.
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada estimates miscarriages occur in 15 to 25% of pregnancies.
Trying to imagine how her family would heal, Markle says she realized the only way to do so was by creating a human connection.
“Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few,” Markle said. “Despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.”
“When one person speaks truth, it gives license for all of us to do the same.”
The account is one of the first times a member of the notoriously private British Royal Family has shared personal details with the public.
Markle and Harry, who is sixth in the line of succession for the British Throne, married in May 2018. The couple announced in January 2020 that they would be stepping back from their royal duties and moving to North America.
They briefly spent time in Canada before settling in Los Angeles.
In her essay, the Duchess wrote that 2020 has brought “so many of us to our breaking points.”
Touching on the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing political division in the United States, Markle urged people to put aside their differences and support one another through this tumultuous time.
“Let us commit to asking others, Are you OK?” she wrote.
“As much as we may disagree, as physically distanced as we may be, the truth is that we are more connected than ever because of all we have individually and collectively endured this year.”
The Duchess ends her essay by describing how humans are finally seeing one another.
“We are adjusting to a new normal where faces are concealed by masks, but it’s forcing us to look into one another’s eyes — sometimes filled with warmth, other times with tears. For the first time, in a long time, as human beings, we are really seeing one another. Are we OK?”
And she ends by saying, “We will be.”
Follow Channels and Categories