Meghan Markle shocked the world on Wednesday by revealing that she suffered a miscarriage over the summer.

The 39 year-old made this bombshell revelation in an op-ed for The New York Times, writing that she suffered a miscarriage back in July. This was just over a year after she and Prince Harry had welcomed their 1 year-old son, Archie.

“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,” she wrote. “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.”

“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,” Meghan added. “Staring at the cold white walls, my eyes glazed over. I tried to imagine how we’d heal.”

She went on to say that she watched Harry’s “heart break as he tried to hold the shattered pieces of mine.”

Meghan explained that she felt that she needed to speak out about her experience after she learned how common miscarriages are.

“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,” she wrote. “Yet despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.”

“Some have bravely shared their stories; they have opened the door, knowing that when one person speaks truth, it gives license for all of us to do the same,” Meghan continued. “We have learned that when people ask how any of us are doing, and when they really listen to the answer, with an open heart and mind, the load of grief often becomes lighter — for all of us. In being invited to share our pain, together we take the first steps toward healing.”

Meghan and Harry shocked the world earlier this year when they stepped down as senior royals and left the United Kingdom. They initially moved to Canada before relocating to Meghan’s hometown of Los Angeles, California. In July, the same month of Meghan’s miscarriage, they moved into their own mansion in Santa Barbara.