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- Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex opened up about having a miscarriage in July this year.
- Writing in an op-ed for the New York Times, Meghan Markle said she was pregnant with her second child when she “felt a sharp cramp” one morning, and realized what was happening.
- “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second,” the duchess wrote.
- The duke and duchess had not announced that they were expecting a second child. Their first child, Archie Harrison, was born in May 2019.
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The Duchess of Sussex has opened up about having a miscarriage in July this year for a candid op-ed in The New York Times.
Writing in the piece, titled “The Losses We Share,” Meghan Markle said she felt a “sharp cramp” one morning as she was changing Archie’s diaper.
The duchess 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.”
“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,” she added.
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The duchess said the experience reminded her of a moment during their tour of South Africa last year, when a journalist asked if she was OK, to which she replied: “Thank you for asking. Not many people have asked if I’m OK.”
"I answered him honestly, not knowing that what I said would resonate with so many — new moms and older ones, and anyone who had, in their own way, been silently suffering. My off-the-cuff reply seemed to give people permission to speak their truth. But it wasn't responding honestly that helped me most, it was the question itself," Markle wrote.
She added: "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?'"
It is unknown how far along Markle was in her pregnancy when she had the miscarriage. The duke and duchess had not announced that they were expecting a second child.
Their first child, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, was born in May 2019.
Representatives for the Duchess of Sussex declined to comment when contacted by Insider.
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