Privacy Policy » Meghan Markle Reveals ‘Rare’ Health Scare During Postpartum

On the premiere episode of her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder with her first guest, Bumble creator Whitney Wolfe Herd, the pair revealed they “both had postpartum preeclampsia.”

“It’s so rare and so scary,” the 43-year-old explained.

Herd added: “Can you believe we both had that?”

Postpartum preeclampsia is a rare condition that occurs when you have high blood pressure and excess protein in your urine soon after childbirth, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“You’re still trying to juggle all of these things, and the world doesn’t know what’s happening quietly,” Herd continued.

“And in the quiet, you’re still trying to show up for people — mostly for your children — but those things are huge medical scares.”

Herd then recalled the image of Prince Harry and Meghan just days after the birth of their first son Archie, as they announced his birth to the world at Windsor Castle.

“I mean life or death, truly. I mean I’ll never forget the image of you after you delivered Archie and the whole world was waiting for his debut,” she started.

“And I was either just becoming or about to become a new mom and I was like, ‘Oh my god how, is this woman doing this? How is this woman putting on heels and going and debuting a child in this beautiful outfit in front of the entire world? I could barely face a doorbell delivery for takeout food in a robe. I was like, ‘Please don’t look at me,'” she joked before adding how “wild” postpartum was.

The ladies bonded over becoming parents around the pandemic and how it shaped their careers and parenting habits.

“[I became a parent] in the pandemic, post-pandemic culture where there is so much working from home,” Markle recalled. “I don’t leave the house to go to an office. My office is here.”

“Lili… only has a half-day in preschool. If she wakes up [from her nap] and wants to find me, she knows where to find me, even if my door is closed to the office,” she added.

“She’ll be sitting there on my lap during one of these meetings with a grid of all the executives.”

Markle emphasized that she wouldn’t have it any other way, though, as she doesn’t want to “miss those moments.”

“I don’t want to miss pickup if I don’t have to,” she said. “I don’t want to miss drop-off.”