Prince Harry discussed his wife Meghan Markle’s miscarriage with his family, and the royals were also aware that Meghan was writing Wednesday’s heart-breaking article about it in The New York Times ahead of publication, a source told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
The source was unwilling to specify exactly who had and had not been told or when. However, it is believed that Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, and Prince William were all in the loop.
The office of Queen Elizabeth said she would be making no comment on the “deeply personal” issue. Prince Charles’ spokesperson said he would not be commenting on the “private” issue. Prince William’s office said they would not comment.
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The extraordinarily intimate article is a dramatic break with longstanding traditions of the royal family revealing almost nothing about their private lives.
The only time on record in the modern era in which a senior royal has been so open about losing a pregnancy came in 2001, when Sophie Wessex, the wife of Prince Edward, the queen’s youngest son, made a statement speaking of her sadness at losing her unborn baby after she was airlifted to a hospital from her home.
After her hospitalization became public, Sophie said, “I’m obviously very sad, but it was just not meant to be. But there will be other chances.”
That brief and buttoned-up statement of almost 20 years ago could hardly be more different to Meghan’s deeply personal essay in the Times today, in which Meghan wrote of her and Harry’s agonizing pain and grief at losing their baby.
Meghan described in harrowing terms suffering a violent cramp as she was going about her daily morning routines, while holding her baby son, Archie.
“I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second,” Meghan wrote.
The fact that both the miscarriage and Meghan’s article about it were discussed by the Sussexes and Harry’s family will be seen by many as a positive sign that relations between the couple and the royals may be better than has been assumed in recent months.
However, it also marks a dramatic break for Harry and Meghan with the established way of doing things.
In her new piece, Meghan referenced her interview in Africa where journalist Tom Bradby famously asked her “Are you OK?”
Another part of that interview seemed just as relevant Wednesday morning.
“I really tried to adopt this British sensibility of a ‘stiff upper lip’—I really tried, but I think that what that does internally is probably really damaging,” Meghan said at the time.
Harry’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth may never have discussed her private life in her 68-year reign, and no doubt has her own views about the advisability of Meghan’s revelation today.
It is quite clear that this groundbreaking and unprecedented article means that Harry and Meghan are declaring that the days of saying the best way to cope with the travails of life is by keeping everything hidden away are well and truly gone.
