In July this year, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex suffered a miscarriage. Meghan Markle recently shared a moving and emotional account of the same, recollection how she and Prince Harry felt on hearing the heartbreaking news.
While talking about it, she also spoke about women across the world suffering from the same and how still the topic still “remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.” Read on.
In an account written for the New York Times, Meghan Markle said, “Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few.”
Mentioning that she felt a sharp cramp while holding her son Archie, Meghan Markle wrote, “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.” She added, “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.”
The Duchess of Sussex further wrote, “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.
In her account on the NY Times website, Meghan Markle spoke about how she tried to keep a ‘brave face’ in public. Recollecting a moment from her and Prince Harry’s trip to South Africa last year, she wrote, “I was exhausted. I was breastfeeding our infant son, and I was trying to keep a brave face in the very public eye.”
Revealing an incident there, where a journalist asked her about her health, the Suits actress mentioned, “Are you OK?” a journalist asked me. 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.” Adding further, she wrote, ““Thank you for asking,” I said. “Not many people have asked if I’m OK.”
Meghan Markle, in her moving account, also talks about Prince Harry’s reaction to the heartbreaking news. She wrote, “Sitting in a hospital bed, watching my husband’s heartbreak 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?”
In her article, the Duchess also reflected on the trials of 2020. She wrote that this year had a lot of loss and pain for many people across the globe owing to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the Black Lives Matter protests.
After suffering a miscarriage herself, Meghan Markle wrote that it was disheartening to learn just how many women suffer from it and how talking about it remains ‘taboo.’ She wrote, “Losing a child means carrying 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, 10 to 20 of them will have suffered from a miscarriage. Yet despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.”
Meghan Markle, in her account, encouraged people to share their grief openly. She wrote, “We have learned that when people ask how any of us are doing, and when they really listen to the answer, with an open heart and mind, the load of grief often becomes lighter — for all of us. In being invited to share our pain, together we take the first steps toward healing.”