Meghan Markle Reveals She Miscarried Her Second Child In July
Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, shared about her July miscarriage in an opinion piece for the New York Times today.
Megan Markle described how she "felt a sharp cramp" while changing the diaper of her first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, who was born to her and her husband Prince Harry in 2019.
"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."
"I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second."
Markle goes on to share about her and her husband’s grief in the hospital, just 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."
"Sitting in a hospital bed, watching my husband's heart break as he tried to hold the shattered pieces of mine, I realized that the only way to begin to heal is to first ask, 'Are you OK?'" Markle continued.
Markle wrote about learning how common miscarriages are and about overcoming the taboo around them.
"Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few,” she wrote. “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."
"My husband and I discovered that in a room of 100 women, 10 to 20 of them will have suffered from miscarriage."
Markle opened out about her miscarriage to continue to chip away at the taboo and the shame surrounding this topic.
If you have suffered a miscarriage, check out our article, “6 Things I Wish I Knew When I Miscarried.”