A personal health struggle that unfolded away from the public eye is now at the center of the Duchess of Sussex’s latest revelation. Read on for more details!
Meghan Markle has revealed a serious health condition she experienced during pregnancy, describing it as “so rare and so scary.” The Duchess of Sussex, 43, made the statement during the premiere episode of her new podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder.”
The episode, released Tuesday, April 8, 2025, featured a candid conversation between Meghan and Bumble dating app founder Whitney Wolfe Herd. In the 50-minute discussion, the pair shared their experiences with health struggles during and after pregnancy, besides other topics.
Meghan, who is mother to Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet with husband Prince Harry, 40, said she developed postpartum preeclampsia, a rare condition that occurs soon after childbirth.
According to the Mayo Clinic, it involves high blood pressure and excess protein in the urine and can lead to serious or even life-threatening complications if not treated quickly.
“And we both had very similar experiences though, we didn’t know each other at the time with postpartum, and we both had preeclampsia. Postpartum preeclampsia,” Meghan revealed. “Can you believe we both had that?” said Whitney. “It’s so rare and so scary,” noted Meghan.
The “Suits” alum went on to describe the emotional and physical toll of dealing with a medical emergency while remaining active in the public eye.
“And you’re still trying to juggle all of these things, and the world doesn’t know what’s happening quietly,” Meghan shared. “And in the quiet, you’re still trying to show up for people. And in the quiet, you’re still just trying to show up, mostly for your children, but those things are huge medical scares.”
“I mean life or death, truly,” Whitney added.
In a March 13, 2025, Instagram post, Meghan announced the launch of her new venture. “I’m so excited to share with you something else I’ve been working on: ‘Confessions of a Female Founder,’ my new podcast with @lemonadamedia!”
“I’ve been having candid conversations with amazing women who have turned dreams into realities, and scaled small ideas into massively successful businesses. They’re opening up, sharing their tips, tricks (and tumbles), and letting me pick their brains as I build out my own business, As ever,” penned the former actress.
“It has been absolutely eye-opening, inspiring…and fun! (Because what’s the point if we can’t have some fun on this wild adventure?) First episode is April 8th!” she concluded.
Besides talking about her health struggles on the podcast, Meghan also reflected on parenting her daughter during her workday.
While speaking with Whitney, the Duchess shared, “We became moms in the pandemic, post-pandemic culture where there is so much working from home,” she explained. “I don’t leave the house to go to an office, my office is here.”
“So oftentimes, Lili still naps, she gets picked up early and she naps, she only has a half day in preschool,” Meghan continued. “So, if she wakes up and she wants to find me, she knows where to find me, even if my door is closed to the office. She’ll be sitting there on my lap during one of these meetings with a grid of all the executives…I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“I don’t want to miss those moments,” Meghan added. “I don’t want to miss pickup if I don’t have to. I don’t want to miss drop-off.”
“And I think what I do love the most about having young kids in this chapter while I’m building is the perspective that it brings because you’re building something while your child is going through potty-training, and both are just as important,” said the former actress.
“It’s like, ‘Great, okay, where’s the Cheerios? Well done.’ And then you’re championing your team ten minutes later about something that is really high value for the world. In your own world, that’s super high value. And in [Lili’s] world, that’s super high value,” concluded Meghan.
Meghan has also spoken openly about a past loss that deeply affected her family. In a November 25, 2020, New York Times op-ed, she described the moment she realized something was wrong during a morning with her son.
“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,” Meghan narrated. “Yet despite the staggering commonality of this pain, the conversation remains taboo, riddled with (unwarranted) shame, and perpetuating a cycle of solitary mourning.”
She recounted feeling a sharp cramp while holding Archie, who was one year old at the time. “Hours later, I lay in a hospital bed, holding my husband’s hand,” she expressed. “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.”
Prince Harry later shared his own reflections on that time in his 2023 memoir “Spare.” He recalled that Meghan began showing signs of pregnancy loss on their first morning in their new home in Montecito.
After they rushed to the hospital, he described watching the doctor’s body language to understand what was happening. “The doctor walked into the room, I didn’t hear one word she said, I just watched her face, her body language. I already knew. We both did,” he penned.
The miscarriage occurred in July 2020. Harry wrote that the couple “both wept” and that he felt “totally hopeless” as they left the hospital with their “unborn child.”
“A tiny package,” he added. “We went to a place, a secret place only we knew. Under a spreading banyan tree, while Meg wept, I dug a hole with my hands and set the tiny package softly in the ground,” he wrote.
Meghan Markle’s willingness to speak candidly about postpartum health struggles, motherhood, and personal loss offers a rare glimpse into challenges often faced in silence.
From navigating a life-threatening medical condition to mourning a miscarriage alongside her husband, Prince Harry, her experiences reflect the private realities behind public lives.
