Queen stays mum on Meghan's miscarriage just like her reaction to Princess Diana's death even as world mourns
There hasn't been a peep from any of the members of the royal family regarding Meghan Markle's devastating revelation that she lost her second child -- is it reminiscent of the cold and almost unemotional manner in which Princess Diana's death was handled over two decades ago?
Although the world learned of the Duchess of Sussex's miscarriage after she penned an opinion piece on the tragedy in the New York Times on November 25, the incident in question took place in July and has been kept under wraps since then, according to our earlier report.
The royal family was reportedly told about the Sussexes’ miscarriage at the time it happened. And although a palace source told People magazine, “There is a lot of sadness around the family," the members of the family have not put up any individual statements of condolences regarding the same.
There were no signs of any kind of condolence or grieving statements from any of them after the op-ed went live on the NYT website. MEAWW scoured through all the social media pages (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) as well as the official websites belonging to the Queen (The Royal Family), Prince William and Kate Middleton (Kensington Royal) as well as Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles (Clarence House) and found that they had not put up any posts regarding the tragic incident.
The Daily Beast’s Tom Bower reported: “The office of Queen Elizabeth said she would be making no comment on the ‘deeply personal’ issue. Prince Charles’ spokesperson said he would not be commenting on the ‘private’ issue. Prince William’s office said they would not comment.”
Bower also added that Meghan discussed the piece with the Queen and Prince Charles before penning the heartwrenching personal essay. As a result, the Buckingham Palace and Clarence House did have time to process the news and could have easily figured out how best to respond if they really wanted to.
In the op-ed Meghan called herself "a mother, feminist and advocate" in the byline of the article as she went on to talk about the “unbearable grief” after she suffered a miscarriage. "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," she wrote.
"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. Staring at the cold white walls, my eyes glazed over. I tried to imagine how we’d heal."
While Meghan's attempt to destigmatize the discussion around the loss of a child saw an outpouring of love from across the world, people who followed the royal family for ages were not surprised at the lack of empathy shown for who was, till last year, one of their own. This is because people remembered the kind of reaction that the house of Windsor displayed when Princess Diana tragically died in a car crash on August 31, 1997.
In the days following her death, the queen stayed resolutely at her Scottish holiday home, Balmoral, and did not return to London. She also refused to have the flag at Buckingham Palace flown at half-mast. The protocol at the time was the flag was only flown there when the Queen was in residence.
Tens of millions of Brits were appalled by her seemingly unfeeling response to the tragedy. Her decision at the time to prioritize custom over comforting her people and misreading the mood of her subjects put the monarchy at the greatest risk of becoming alienated from the masses. The queen ultimately put the Union Flag at half-mast and paid tribute to the Princess of Wales during a televised speech.