16 celebs who spoke out about their miscarriages

Liv Lo Golding and Henry Golding

1/16

Before the birth of their first child, Liv Lo shared that she had miscarried at the start of 2020, when she was told in the tenth week of her pregnancy that her baby did not have a heartbeat. At the time, Henry was filming in Tokyo. She wrote “All I needed was a big hug after the procedure, but having to wait a week to travel across the world to catch up to each other was pretty traumatic for me,” she wrote in a blog post. The couple is now pregnant with their second child.

In her memoir Becoming, which was released in November 2018, the former first lady of the United States wrote about her and Barack’s troubles getting pregnant and the miscarriage that she suffered before going on to have daughters Sasha and Malia through IVF. On Good Morning America, she said, “I felt lost and alone, and I felt like I failed. Because I didn’t know how common miscarriages are. Because we don’t talk about it. We sit in our own pain, thinking that somehow we’re broken.”

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry

3/16

In an op-ed written for The New York Times in November 2020, the Duchess of Sussex revealed that she had a miscarriage while holding her son Archie. Describing the experience, she wrote, “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. I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.” Now mum to both Archie and his little sister Lilibet, Meghan wrote at the time “I realized that the only way to begin to heal is to first ask, “Are you OK?”

Barbie Hsu

4/16

Recently Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu revealed that she has had two miscarriages in the past. Once in March 2011 and again in April 2018. She came forward with the information after it was published by a Taiwanese publication in May 2023, right before Mother’s Day. A statement from her lawyer said “I believe female friends who have similarly experienced the trauma of miscarriages would inevitably feel the pain, together with feelings of remorse and loss, again on Mother’s Day. I fear the report will trigger traumatic reactions among such friends, so I hope we can encourage and support one another through words.”

Janet Hsieh

5/16

In May 2018 the taiwanes actress-host who is married to Chinese-British actor George Young, found out she was pregnant a second time. However at her 10-week scan she discovered the baby had no heartbeat and had stopped developing at eight weeks. Two weeks after the discovery, she started bleeding while on a shoot and had to pull the foetus out of her body herself. She told The New Paper the following year in 2019 that she opened up about her experience because women often feel blame and guilt after losing a baby.

Kate Pang

6/16

Local actress Kate Pang suffered a miscarriage in between hosting gigs in 2015. She called husband Andie Chen who was on a shoot for a TV drama when it happened. He told The Asian Parent, “I remember getting a phone call from [Kate], I was in the middle of my shoot. She told me what had happened and she was crying. [When] she told me what had happened, I walked off the set and started crying.” The miscarriage only strengthened the couple’s desire to have children and they now have two boys.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend

7/16

Known for her raw honesty on a platform that often doesn’t promote it, Chrissy Teigan shared a heartbreaking post on Instagram in October 2020, about losing her son a month after she and singer John Legend had announced the pregnancy.  “We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you only hear about, the kind of pain we’ve never felt before,” she wrote at the time.

The model/chef/host/influencer had been hospitalised with heavy bleeding which doctors were unable to control. They had already named their son Jack and so continue to honour his memory to today. Since then, Chrissy has gone on to have another child, baby girl Esti Maxine Stevens, born in January 2023. She joins the couple’s daughter Luna and son Miles.

YES 933FM DJ Lim Peifen revealed she had had a miscarriage in early 2021. She reflected in an Instagram post in December that year, after welcoming a second child in October. “Sharing this now because I’m ready to, and because when it happened to me, I found strength in women with similar stories,” she wrote. She called her second son, Jude, a “rainbow baby”, a common term used to describe a child born after the mother has experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth. She also has an older son with computer engineer husband Lie Wei Xiang.

Beyonce’s known for keeping her personal life off the press but during her 20`3 HBO special, Life Is But A Dream, the singer opened up about her miscarriage. In the documentary, the Grammy award winner described the pain as, “the saddest thing that I’ve ever been through.”

She then went on to say that the experience thought her to value her next pregnancy a little more and that giving birth to Blue Ivy was a privilege.

Jasmine Tan and Chow Yun Fatt

10/16

In a rare interview with Apple Daily, Hong Kong film star Chow Yun Fat’s Singaporean wife, Jasmine Tan recounted the fateful day in 1992 when she discovered that her daughter was stillborn. “It was only one week from the expected date of birth,” Jasmine told the tabloid.

It took her a painful seven years to recover from the loss. Jasmine recalled that she suspected something was wrong when her child stopped kicking her belly one day. After discovering this, the couple made their way to a clinic in Mong Kok. As it was raining heavily, the pair had to wade through knee-deep water to get to the clinic. Once they got there, they learned that Jasmine needed to be admitted into hospital immediately.
At St. Teresa’s Hospital, scans showed that the couple’s child had been strangled by its own umbilical cord. The doctor and nurses did not quite know how to break the news to Jasmine and instead, asked if Yun Fat would inform her instead.
Still, Jasmine insisted on pushing out her stillborn child. Afraid that it would hurt her tremendously, Yun Fat asked for the nurses to take the baby away as he did not want to see his wife in pain.
Jasmine later told The Straits Times in 1997 that her husband was a huge source of support for her and stayed by her side for five days after her ordeal. “He didn’t go home and he didn’t shave. We slept together in the same hospital bed,” she recounted. Till today, the couple remain childless but have channeled all their energy into giving back to the community and would make private donations to benefit the public.

Courteney Cox

11/16

While filming F.R.I.E.N.D.S, Courteney admitted that she was going through fertility issues and suffered several miscarriages.

“I remember one time I just had a miscarriage and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston’s character on the show) was giving birth. It was like that same time. It was terrible having to be funny,” she told NBC News.

However, Courteney eventually did manage to carry a child to full term and gave birth to her beautiful daughter, Coco, in 2004.

Nicole Kidman

12/16

The Big Little Lies actress revealed in a 2007 interview that she was having fertility problems with husband Tom Cruise when they were married.

“We lost a baby earlier on and it was traumatic. It’s one of the reasons we adopted Bella,” she told Vanity Fair. 

Mariah Carey

13/16

According to Access Hollywood, Mariah’s first pregnancy with ex-husband Nick Cannon ended in a miscarriage and it put them both in a dark place.

Celine Dion

14/16

In an interview with Oprah, the superstar shared about her failed attempts at conceiving through in vitro fertilisation with husband Rene Angelil in 2009.

Still, the singer remained positive even after four failed attempts. ” It’s life, you know? A lot of people go through this. We tried four times to have a child.”

Sharon Stone

15/16

During an interview with AARP Magazine, the actress revealed that she suffered three miscarriages before finally deciding to adopt.

In tears, Sharon recounted the last pregnancy and how she spent 36 hours in labour. Read the interview here.

P!NK

16/16

She’s known for being an open book about her personal life but when it came to her pregnancy with daughter Willow Sage, P!NK was reluctant to reveal more.

When asked about it on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, she revealed that she had had a miscarriage before and it was painful.

This article was originally published in Singapore Women's Weekly.