Meghan Markle: Duchess of Sussex reveals she had a miscarriage
Video report by ITV News Royal Correspondent Chris Ship
The Duchess of Sussex has revealed she suffered a miscarriage with her second child earlier this year.
In an article for the New York Times, Meghan wrote losing her child meant "carrying an almost unbearable grief".
In the piece, she describes how the July morning had "began as ordinarily as any other day," but as she changed son Archie's nappy, she felt an intense pain.
"After changing his [her son Archie's] diaper, I felt a sharp cramp," she 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.
"I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second."
The Duchess has written about her experience of miscarriage in a bid to help other women open up about what continues to be a subject that few feel able to talk about.
Ms Markle 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."
ITV News Royal Editor Chris Ship reacts to Meghan’s ‘personal’ article on miscarriage
An estimated one in four pregnancies in the UK ends in a miscarriage according to the charity Tommy’s, which funds research into miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births, with most women losing their babies during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The article, entitled 'The Losses We Share', takes in the wider world picture in a year, the duchess said, that "has brought so many of us to our breaking points".
"Loss and pain have plagued every one of us in 2020," she said.
Ms Markle urged people to "commit to asking others, 'are you OK?'" as she recalls the moment ITV News presenter Tom Bradby asked her how was during the Sussexes' tour of South Africa in 2019.
“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," she wrote.
ITV News presenter Tom Bradby asking the duchess if she was "OK" during ITV documentary, Harry & Meghan: An African Journey.
"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.
“Thank you for asking,” I said. “Not many people have asked if I’m OK.”
Bradby spoke to Meghan in a garden in Johannesburg, South Africa about her experience of a year which has seen her face ever more public attention before.
Meghan and Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, had their first child, Archie, on 6 May 2019.
The couple announced they would be stepping down as senior royals in January as the family sought out a more peaceful life away from the media spotlight.
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Speaking on ITV's Lorraine, Prince Harry's uncle Earl Spencer said: “I can’t imagine the agony for any couple losing a child in this way and it’s so very, very sad and of course I totally agree with you - all thoughts with them today.”
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said about Meghan’s disclosure that she has experienced a miscarriage: “It’s a deeply personal matter we would not comment on.”
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