The Duchess of Sussex, in a poignant opinion piece, has revealed she suffered a miscarriage over the summer in an article she wrote for the New York Times .
The piece, entitled ‘The Losses We Share’, revealed that she lost her unborn, second child in July. The Duchess, 39, described the experience as ‘an almost unbearable grief experienced by many but talked about by few’.
The Duchess recounts that she began the day at home in Santa Barbara like any other, before suffering a sharp stomach pain and realising instantly that she was losing her baby.
She wrote: ‘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.
‘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.’
The Duchess goes on to write that hours later, she lay in a hospital bed holding Prince Harry’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.’
Meghan goes on to write about grief, her own grief, as well as the grief shared by many in a year unlike any other set against the backdrop of the pandemic. She hones in on that moment in an interview last year in South Africa, when friend and journalist Tom Bradby asked Meghan, ‘Are you OK?’ It was a question that resonated and goes on to form the backbone of the very personal article that explores loss, grief and the path to recovery.
‘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 Duchess writes.
The Queen’s granddaughter Zara Tindall became the first member of the Royal Family to speak publicly about miscarriage when she revealed she lost two babies following the birth of her eldest daughter, Mia.
Zara and husband Mike, who welcomed daughter Mia in 2014, revealed in December 2016 that a pregnancy announced the previous month had ended in miscarriage. It was two years later in an interview with the Sunday Times that Zara, now 39, opened up about the devastation of losing the baby and revealed she had suffered a second miscarriage before falling pregnant with daughter Lena, now two.
Zara was thought to be around four-months pregnant at the time of her first miscarriage. She told the newspaper: ‘It was a time when my family came to the fore and I needed them. It's hard for the guys, it's a different feeling of loss, isn't it?’ Since the publication of the New York Times piece this morning, 25 November, there has been a huge outpouring of support for the Duchess of Sussex with grieving parents sharing their own heartbreaking stories of miscarriage.
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