Meghan Markle: “In July I had a miscarriage. While I was holding my first child, I was losing the second "
"I knew, while holding my firstborn, that I was losing the second". Like a river in flood, Meghan Markle found the strength to publicly tell what happened to her last July, when she had a miscarriage of the second child she was carrying. Prince Harry's wife decided to recount her dramatic experience in hopes of being of support to other people and she did so in a touching article written in her own hand and published in the New York Times. “Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable pain, experienced by many but which few talk about,” wrote Meghan, 39, already the mother of 18-month-old Archie. Below is an excerpt from his story in the editorial entitled "The Losses We Share":
“It was a July morning that started normally like any other day: prepare breakfast. Feed the dogs. Take vitamins. Find that missing sock. Collect the rogue crayon that has rolled under the table. Gather your hair in a ponytail before taking your baby out of his crib.
After changing the diaper, I felt a strong cramp. I dropped to the ground with him in my arms, humming a lullaby to keep us calm, the cheerful melody in stark contrast to my feeling that something was wrong.
I knew, as I held my firstborn, that I was losing the second. Hours later, I was lying in a hospital bed, holding my husband's hand. I felt the wetness of his palm and kissed his knuckles, wet from both of our tears. Staring at the cold white walls, my eyes were glassy. I tried to imagine how we would be healed.
I remembered a moment last year when Harry and I were finishing a long tour in South Africa. I was exhausted. I was breastfeeding our newborn son and I was trying to maintain a courageous image in the public eye.
"Are you OK?" a reporter asked me. I answered him honestly, not knowing that what I said would resonate with so many new and older moms and whoever had, in their own way, suffered in silence. My impromptu response seemed to give people permission to tell their truth. But it wasn't honest answering that helped me the most, it was the question itself.
“Thanks for asking,” I said. "Not many people have asked me if I'm okay." Sitting in a hospital bed, watching my husband's heart break as he tried to hold onto my shattered pieces, I realized that the only way to start healing is to first ask: "Are you okay?"
The revelation on the miscarriage follows quite a few rumors circulated in recent months about the possible second pregnancy of the Duchess of Sussex. And it explains the postponement of the next phase of a trial brought by Meghan herself - with the support of Harry - against the British tabloid Daily Mail, accused of having published at the time a private letter written by her to her father Thomas Markle, in violation (according to the complaint) of both his family privacy and his copyright rights. A case still open, and which has not failed to arouse controversy, the postponement of which was requested by the lawyers of the Duchess herself and granted by the court on the basis of reasons that the judge presiding over the hearings had deemed in recent days not to want public authorities.
