Zara Tindall, the Queen’s granddaughter, has opened up about the pain of losing a second baby just months after she publicly announced she had miscarried in December 2016.
Tindall, who is married to English rugby player Mike Tindall, opened up about her heartache and loss in a rare display of candour for the royals in an interview with The Times’ magazine Relative Values.
The accomplished equestrian said she suffered her second miscarriage “really early on” in the pregnancy, before eventually becoming pregnant with her daughter Lena, who was born in June.
As is tradition for descendants of the Queen, Zara, 37, had announced she was pregnant in November 2016, but just one month later revealed she had miscarried.
She told The Times one of the most difficult parts of dealing with their first miscarriage was having to do so in the public eye.
“We had to tell everyone and it’s like, everyone knows — that’s the hardest bit,” she said. “That’s why I think a lot of people don’t talk about it because [a miscarriage] can happen early enough or it’s only your group of friends and your family that know.”
Despite having such a private matter splashed over the front pages of newspapers around the world, Zara said the upside was the letters of support she and Mike received from other parents.
“Amazingly, lots of people wrote to us and said they’d been through the same thing,” she said. “A lot of people do go through it and it happens, it really happens a lot. Because a lot of my friends had had kids before, I was always quite practical about it. It is hard and you are very lucky when you have a good pregnancy and everything works.”
She also touched on the stigma surrounding miscarriages, noting that the grief makes it difficult for people to talk about. She admitted that she didn’t want to talk about her loss with anyone because her pain was so raw, but over time she was able to mourn and somewhat move on.
It’s estimated that one in four pregnancies will end in miscarriage, many before a woman even knows she is pregnant. Despite its commonality, the emotional, and physical, pain of miscarriages means it’s something many couples would rather deal with privately rather than openly grieving their loss.
Zara also touched on the support she’s received from her family, particularly her brother Peter, who she called very protective.
Zara are now the proud parents to daughter Lena, one month, and four-year-old Mia.