Meghan details 'losing' second child while holding Archie

The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle has revealed in an opinion article published in the New York Times on Wednesday that she had a miscarriage - an extraordinarily personal disclosure coming from a high-profile British royal.

Prince Harry's wife wrote about the experience in detail, saying it took place on a morning in July while she was caring for Archie, the couple's son.

She said she realised "something was not right" after feeling a "sharp cramp" while changing Archie's diaper, according to the Daily Mail. 

"I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second," Meghan wrote.

"Losing a child means carrying an almost unbearable grief, experienced by many but talked about by few.

"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."

Earlier this year, Meghan spoke about how motherhood had made her “more courageous” as a leader.

The duchess revealed this during Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit.

“It makes you so concerned for the world they're going to inherit, and the things you're able to tolerate on your own are not the same you are going to put your child in a position of vulnerability for.

“You go every day, how can I make this better for him? How can I make this better for Archie? That is a shared belief between me and my husband.”

She also revealed that she and the duke were focused on spending quality time with the one-year-old during lockdown.

The couple moved to California after stepping back from their roles as senior members of the British royal family earlier this year.

They later set firmer roots in the US with the purchase of their first home in Santa Barbara.

- Additional reporting by Reuters