October 15 marks Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day, and there are about 23 million pregnancies that end in miscarriages worldwide. In 1988, President Ronald Regan declared October to be Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month “to increase our understanding of the great tragedy involved in the deaths of unborn and newborn babies.” Though it isn’t easy to discuss, more women and families have come forward with their stories to increase conversation and awareness around the issue. Here are 10 women who have spoken out about their experience with miscarriages.
Jazmine Sullivan got candid with fans on her birthday back in April about “life’s a– whoopings” she’s been taking. The 38-year-old singer shared that she experienced a pregnancy loss two months prior, which she was quietly grieving.
She said, “I woulda have been holding my 2-month-old son that I never got to meet,” she wrote. “So needless to say I’ve been down bad.”
(L-R) Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Blue Ivy Carter attend the 67th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 02, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty
Over the last 13 years, the Beyhive witnessed Beyoncé become a mother to not one but three children. She was applauded over the summer for her care and protection of her eldest daughter, Blue Ivy, when she joined her on-stage for the Cowboy Carter tour. Her youngest daughter Rumi, who is a twin to Yoncé’s son Sir, also went viral with the way she took charge of the stage with her personality. But before having her three babies, Beyoncé experienced the pain of several miscarriages.
She told Elle in 2019, “Having miscarriages taught me that I had to mother myself before I could be a mother to someone else.”
Gabrielle Union told her truth about her difficult journey to expand her family with Dwyane Wade back in 2017. In her book, “We’re Going to Need More Wine,” she wrote that she had had “eight or nine miscarriages” after having fertility issues. She tried multiple IVF cycles, but unfortunately, they were not successful. In 2018, the Bring It On star tried another route. She and her husband, Dwyane Wade, welcomed their daughter Kaavia James Union Wade through a surrogate.
In her memoir, “Becoming,” the former First Lady Michelle Obama revealed her struggle to get pregnant and how she turned to IVF for assistance. Her and President Barack Obama’s daughters, Malia and Sasha were both conceived using the fertilization treatment. Reflecting on the miscarriages, she told Good Morning America in 2018, “I felt like I failed because I didn’t know how common miscarriages were because we don’t talk about them. We sit in our own pain, thinking that somehow we’re broken.”
Back in 2021, Aja Naomi King celebrated being pregnant with her “beautiful little rainbow baby.” She debuted her baby bump in an Instagram post and opened up about the loss experienced on the way. “I suffered two miscarriages and even now trying to capture what it felt like in words is simply absurd to me because I will never have language enough for it,” she said. She welcomed her son Kian King with her husband Dan King and he is now four years old.
Girls Trip star Tiffany Haddish, has had eight miscarriages in her life. She told PEOPLE that the struggle was “so f-cking devastating.” Her last miscarriage was in November of 2023. Haddish said the reason for her pregnancy losses is because of her uterus’ build. She told the Washington Post, “I’ve got a uterus shaped like a heart, it just won’t keep anything in.”
Chrissy Teigen and her Grammy award-winning husband, John Legend, opened up about the devastating loss of their son, Jack, back in 2020. In 2022, she shared that at 20 weeks, it was determined that Baby Jack would not survive because of partial placenta abruption. Teigen ultimately had to undergo a “life-saving abortion” to ensure her health. At the time, Teigen and Legend already had their daughter, Luna Stephens, and Miles Stephens. But in 2022, she decided to go through IVF to get pregnant with her daughter Esti Maxine Stephens. She later found a surrogate who would carry her last child, Wren Stephens.
Last year, Boy Meets World star Trina McGee said she had a miscarriage three months after sharing she was pregnant. McGee, now 56, spoke with Tamron Hall on her show about the loss. She said, “I did lose the baby. It wasn’t expected; it was closer to the end of the first trimester. We don’t have any real reasons why.” Despite the painful loss, she said, “I was still so grateful to have the experience of being able to conceive at this age and this time.”
Gospel singer Kierra Sheard and her husband Jordan Kelly welcomed their daughter Khloé-Drew Valencia Kelly back in 2023. But the journey to motherhood did not come without its hardship for Sheard. In June, she divulged some of the struggles she went through on Instagram. She said she experienced two ectopic pregnancies and using IVF was unsuccessful. In her testimony, she shared that when she and her husband conceived their daughter in 2023, it was a fully natural process and without using IVF.
Meghan Markle is a mother of two to her son Archie Harrison and daughter Lilibet Diana. She welcomed her children with her husband, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, in 2019 and 2021.
However, in between those years, Markle shared that they experienced a miscarriage. She recalled picking up her son from his crib when she suddenly 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,” she said in a New York Times opinion article. She wrote, “I knew, as I clutched my firstborn child, that I was losing my second.”
