In a powerful yet personal op-ed for the New York Times entitled “The Losses We Share,” Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle opens up about suffering a miscarriage in July—losing what would have been her and Prince Harry’s second child. Meghan painfully describes the moment she realized she was losing her baby.

“After changing his [Archie’s] 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,” she detailed. “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.”

As Meghan lay grappling with one of the most gut-wrenching losses a woman can experience, she describes how her husband tried to console her while also coming to terms with the miscarriage.

“Sitting in a hospital bed, watching my husband’s heart break as he tried to hold the shattered pieces of mine, I realized that the only way to begin to heal is to first ask, ‘Are you OK?'”

‘Are you OK’ is a reference to a touching moment she shared during an ITV News last year when a reporter asked about her mental wellbeing. With the challenges 2020 has brought, i.e., a pandemic, police brutality and racial tensions, Meghan urges everyone “to commit to asking others, ‘Are you OK?’” over the holidays.

What do you think of Meghan’s transparency about suffering a miscarriage?