Meghan Markle reveals she suffered a miscarriage last summer
Meghan Markle, the wife of Prince Harry, revealed that she suffered a miscarriage last July, in an opinion column published this Wednesday in the American newspaper The New York Times, in which she addresses the deep suffering and mourning that the couple went through.
"I knew, as I held my first child in my arms, that I was losing my second," writes the Duchess of Sussex, who married Henry in 2018, sixth in the order of succession to the British crown.
Meghan and Harry had their first child, Archie, in May 2019.
In the column published in The New York Times, he says that he had just changed Archie's diapers when he felt a cramp and fell to the floor.
The 39-year-old actress said that losing a pregnancy is "excruciating pain" and that the subject remains "taboo" and is "steeped in (unnecessary) shame, perpetuating a cycle of lonely grief."
The column also mentions topics such as the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matter protest movement and the recent electoral turbulence in the United States, to finally offer a message of hope.
"For the first time in a long time, we are really seeing each other, as human beings," he writes.
Markle, whose mother is black, also talks about the deaths of African-Americans Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, in the context of questioned police actions.
"Loss and grief have washed over each and every one of us in 2020, at times both tense and debilitating."
Meghan Markle: fame and the right to privacy
Her column is published at a time when the couple is waging a war against various outlets that she accuses of violating her privacy.
Markle reproaches Associated Newspapers - which publishes the British newspapers Mail Online, Daily Mail and its Sunday version Mail on Sunday - of violating her privacy by publishing excerpts from a letter addressed to her father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018 before to marry Enrique.
Following their departure from the royal family, announced in January and effective since early April, Meghan and Harry moved first to Canada and then quickly to California.
Her retirement came after reports that Markle was very unhappy with real life and tired of media intrusion. Enrique, meanwhile, has been the target of the tabloids all his life and even blames them for the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
The couple, however, signed an exclusive deal for a production with Netflix for an undisclosed amount.
In the column, Markle says that in July she realized - as her husband comforted her in the hospital after the abortion - that "the only way to start healing is to first ask, 'Are you okay?'
Between 10 percent and 15 percent of pregnancies end in abortions, according to the US NGO March of Dimes.
"Some have courageously shared their stories; they have opened the door, knowing that when one person speaks the truth, it allows all of us to do the same," she writes.
Markle's decision to go to The New York Times to discuss her abortion is reminiscent of the 2013 column in which actress Angelina Jolie revealed her decision to undergo a preventive double mastectomy.
Jolie, who was still married to fellow Hollywood star Brad Pitt at the time, said at the time that she had decided to go public with her decision because she hoped "other women could benefit" from her experience.
