Meghan Markle opens up about her heartbreaking miscarriage
The Duchess of Sussex speaks candidly about her miscarriage
Last week, in a piece written for The New York Times, Meghan Markle revealed that she and husband Prince Harry suffered a miscarriage in July. In the piece, titled, “The Losses We Share”, the 39 year old wrote about her heartbreak in the context of the many losses people have suffered in 2020 due to the pandemic, as well as the deaths from police brutality. Meghan – who has one-year-old son Archie with Harry – wrote of the moment she knew something was wrong at their Californian home. “It was a July morning… 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. I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.”
It had not been announced that the Duchess was expecting a second child. Meghan went on to write about being in the hospital with Harry, her husband of twoanda-half years. “Sitting in a hospital bed, watching my husband’s heart break as he tried to hold the shattered pieces of mine, I realised that the only way to begin to heal is to first ask, ‘Are you OK?’” The Duchess was referring to the moment in October 2019, when she and Harry were on a royal tour of South Africa. A journalist directly asked Meghan if she was OK, to which she replied that she was grateful for the question as “not many people have asked”.
In her emotional essay, Meghan encouraged people to speak their truth and share their pain, calling it “the first steps towards healing”. She added, “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, ten 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.”
Fans of the Duchess all over the world praised her open and honest words, thanking her for encouraging people to speak out and share their grief. One Twitter user wrote, “Only respect for Meghan Markle speaking up about her miscarriage. So many women are suffering in silence because they simply don’t know how to vocalise their pain.” Another commended Meghan for acknowledging other tragedies. “Respect to Meghan Markle for using her own tragic experience as a platform to speak up about the collective grief and loss we have felt this year – COVID-19, as well as the tragic deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.”
In the New York Times piece, Meghan writes, “Loss and pain have plagued every one of us in 2020.” But she ends on a hopeful note, asking, “Are we OK?” and answering with, “We will be.” n
‘Loss and pain have plagued every one of us in 2020’