Meghan Markle Reveals She Had a “Life or Death” Pregnancy Complication

As she kicked off the first season of her new podcast Meghan Markle Looks Elegant in a White Dress for Behind-the-Scenes Easter Video, it was revealed that both Meghan Markle and her first guest, Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, had a “scary” pregnancy complication that was “life or death.”

In the debut April 8 episode, Herd shared that both she and Meghan had preeclampsia, which can lead to complications with both a mother and a baby if not addressed properly. 

“Can you believe we both had that?” Herd said. “It’s so rare.”

Even through it all, Meghan said, “And you go and you’re still trying to juggle all of these things. And the world doesn’t know what’s happening quietly. 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,” Meghan added. “But those things are huge medical scares.”

Herd marveled at Meghan—in hair, makeup, and heels—presenting a two day old Prince Archie Meghan Markle’s Scrapped Netflix Series Faces Plagiarism Accusations Prince Harry in May 2019, when both Harry and Meghan were still working members of the royal family. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had a photocall at Windsor Castle—even considered “late” in the royal world, when royals like Prince Charles and Princess Diana and Prince William and Kate Middleton debuted their newborns on the steps of the Lindo Wing at St. Mary’s Hospital as they were leaving the hospital, sometimes just hours after the baby’s birth.

“I’ll never forget the image of you after you delivered Archie and the whole world was, like, waiting for his debut,” Herd said on the show. “And, like, I was, you know, either just becoming or about to become a new mom. And I was like, oh my God, how is this woman doing this? Like, how is this woman putting on heels and going and debuting a child in this, you know, beautiful outfit in front of the entire world?”

“Like, I could barely face a doorbell delivery for takeout food, you know?” Herd added. “Like, in a robe. I was like, ‘Please don’t look at me. Leave it down the street. Can I be back in my cocoon?’”

The conversation with Herd is the first of eight episodes for the first season of the podcast with Lemonada Media. It marks the first show with that network after Meghan’s 12-episode Archetypes Meghan Markle, Prince Harry, and Prince Archie on May 8, 2019.