Queen Elizabeth II’s granddaughter Zara Tindall has revealed that she suffered two miscarriages before giving birth to her second child last month.
“You need to go through a period where you don’t talk about it because it’s so raw,” Tindall 37, told The Sunday Times in a story published on Sunday, July 29. “But as with everything, time’s a great healer.”
The Olympic British equestrian shares Mia, 4, and 5-week-old Lena, with her husband, Mike Tindall. The couple lost a pregnancy in 2016, shortly after they publicly announced they were expanding their family.
“In our case, it was something that was really rare; it was nature saying, ‘This one’s not right,’” Zara told the U.K. paper. “I had to go through having the baby because it was so far along.”
Though Zara said the “worst bit” was having to make the first miscarriage public, in the end she found comfort in people writing to her saying they had been through the same thing. Zara, whose mother is Princess Anne, also leaned on loved ones to get her through the tragedy. “It was a time when my family come to the fore,” she told The Sunday Times. “And I needed them.”
With the second miscarriage, Zara and the former professional rugby player, 39, were able to mourn privately as they had not announced the pregnancy. “I think a lot of the time you’re lucky if it happens a lot earlier,” she explained. Because it’s so personal to each family and every case is different, you can never compare what’s happened or the feelings that people have gone though or the trauma.”
Zara and Mike are celebrating their seven-year anniversary on Monday, July 30.
