Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle has opened up that she and Prince Harry suffered a miscarriage earlier this year. In a heartfelt piece for The New York Times, she opened up about dealing with unbearable grief and the need for kindness and empathy.
Recalling the fateful day, Meghan Markle writes, "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... 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 speaks about the time she was in the hospital, when she and Prince Harry shed tears for their unborn child and stood with each other in their grief.
The Duchess of Sussex details how, during an exhausting tour of South Africa, she was struggling to keep it together while taking care of her infant. Markle says it was during that time that a question by a journalist resonated across the world - "Are you doing okay?"
In the oped she recalls that moment and says it's not her answer but the question that deserves attention. She speaks about healing, and says it begins with that question, "Are you OK?"
Talking about the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic, and of race related crimes in the United States, Meghan Markle writes about divisions and loneliness.
"A young woman named Breonna Taylor goes to sleep, just as she’s done every night before, but she doesn’t live to see the morning because a police raid turns horribly wrong. George Floyd leaves a convenience store, not realizing he will take his last breath under the weight of someone’s knee, and in his final moments, calls out for his mom. Peaceful protests become violent. Health rapidly shifts to sickness. In places where there was once community, there is now division."
Markle adds that she is not the only woman dealing with loss."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". She writes:
Yet despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.
In the end, Meghan Markle urges everyone to look around and extend a kind hand whenever necessary.
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