Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, has written about her and husband Prince Harry's 'unbearable grief' after she suffered a miscarriage in July.
The 39-year-old, who has been living in California with Prince Harry and her one-and-a-half-year-old son Archie since the couple stepped back as Britain's frontline royals, wrote in 'The New York Times' about losing her second child while holding her firstborn.
"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. Throw my hair in a ponytail before getting my son from his crib," writes Markle.
"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," she said.
The duchess went to the hospital with Prince Harry, where she recalls watching her "husband's heart break" as she held his hand.
"Hours later, I lay in a hospital bed, holding my husband's hand. I felt the clamminess of his palm and kissed his knuckles, wet from both our tears. Staring at the cold white walls, my eyes glazed over. I tried to imagine how we'd heal," she writes.
She adds: "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."
The article is titled 'The Losses We Share', in which the royal goes on to talk about the importance of asking people if they are OK.
A source close to Markle confirmed to the BBC that she is currently in good health. The couple took time to process what happened in July and, having come to appreciate how common miscarriage is, they wanted to talk about it publicly, the source added.
Other British royals have also experienced the loss of an unborn baby, with the Queen's granddaughter Zara Tindall suffering two miscarriages before having her second child.
The Countess of Wessex, wife of the Queen's son Prince Edward, lost her first baby in December 2001 when she was airlifted to hospital after suffering a potentially life-threatening ectopic pregnancy.
