Meghan Markle Reveals She Had a Miscarriage Earlier This Year

Photo by Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

In a heartbreaking essay titled “The Losses We Share” written for The New York Times, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, revealed that she had a miscarriage earlier this year. It was not public knowledge that she was pregnant.

The essay describes where she was and what she was doing the moment it happened.

“It was a July morning that began as ordinarily as any other day: Make breakfast. Feed the dogs. Take vitamins. Find that missing sock. Pick up the rogue crayon that rolled under the table. Throw my hair in a ponytail before getting my son from his crib,” she wrote.

“After changing his 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.”

Markle went on to describe the “almost unbearable grief” that she and her husband, Prince Harry, experienced in the aftermath of her miscarriage.

“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?”

The essay goes on to talk about the trauma of loss that so many have experienced in 2020–first through the coronavirus pandemic, then through witnessing on onslaught of racial violence in a tumultuous summer, then through an acrimonious, divisive election cycle.

“This year has brought so many of us to our breaking points,” she wrote. “Loss and pain have plagued every one of us in 2020, in moments both fraught and debilitating.”

She ended the piece on a hopeful note, describing the bittersweet unity that humankind is experiencing in the face of such shared hardships.

“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? We will be.”

Meghan Markle’s is now part of the growing movement of female public figures destigmatizing pregnancy loss.

In September, Chrissy Teigen revealed on social media that she was going to the hospital due to pregnancy complications. Hours later, she shared with the world: “Driving home from the hospital with no baby. How can this be real?”

Teigen went on to write an essay on Medium about why she took pictures of her pregnancy loss experience and chose to share them with the world: “I lived it, I chose to do it, and more than anything, these photos aren’t for anyone but the people who have lived this or are curious enough to wonder what something like this is like,” she said. “These photos are only for the people who need them.”

Teigen went on to ask women who have had similar experiences to hers to not be afraid of sharing their stories with the world: “The worst part is knowing there are so many women that won’t get these quiet moments of joy from strangers. I beg you to please share your stories and to please be kind to those pouring their hearts out. Be kind in general, as some won’t pour them out at all.”