In her new memoir, Becoming, Michelle Obama reveals that she suffered a miscarriage in her 30s and experienced fertility issues while trying to have children with her husband, former president Barack Obama. Ultimately, the couple conceived their daughters, Sasha and Malia, through in vitro fertilization—something Michelle dealt with largely on her own as Barack was away serving the state legislature. As the former First Lady details in her book, she had to administer the shots that are a part of in vitro fertilization many times herself.
Michelle opened up more about this experience to Robin Roberts on Good Morning America Friday (November 9). “I felt like I failed because I didn’t know how common miscarriages were because we don’t talk about them,” she said. “We sit in our own pain, thinking that somehow we’re broken.”
She continued, “That’s one of the reasons why I think it’s important to talk to young mothers about the fact that miscarriages happen.”
In the interview, Michelle says she realized the “biological clock is real” around age 34 or 35 and that “egg production is limited.” “We had to do IVF,” Michelle told Roberts.
Ultimately, Michelle hopes opening up about her struggles will help other women going through similar experiences. “I think it’s the worst thing that we do to each other as women, not share the truth about our bodies and how they work,” she said.
Becoming will hit bookstores and E-reader platforms everywhere on Tuesday, November 13. Click here to look at tickets for Michelle’s upcoming book tour in support of the project.
Does the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle feel like it was about 100 years ago to you too? So very much has happened since the couple tied the knot in Windsor on May 19. And that includes the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s recent official overseas tour of Australia, Fiji, Tonga, and New Zealand. They kicked that off days after Princess Eugenie’s royal wedding by dropping some big news: They’re expecting their first child in the spring. Like I said, a lot has happened.
Still, any new tidbits about that magical royal wedding day are always welcome—and the latest comes from Prince Harry himself.
“I asked him to, and I think he knew it was coming, and he immediately said, ‘Yes, of course, I’ll do whatever Meghan needs and I’m here to support you,’” Harry says in the documentary. “For him that’s a fantastic opportunity to step up and be that support, and you know he’s our father, so of course he’s gonna be there for us.”
PHOTO: OWEN HUMPHREYS/AFP/Getty Images
Who can forget that sweet father-son moment when Charles and Markle arrived at the end of the aisle and Harry said, “Thank you, pa.” Looking back on it, Harry says, “You’ve gotta say thank you. Just because he’s my father that doesn’t mean I can just sort of go, ‘OK, that’s all, I’ll take it from here.’”
“I was very grateful for him to be able to do that,” he adds.
Charles’ wife, Camilla, also opens up about the day in the documentary—and reveals that royals had the wedding on replay just like us. “I think that was very touching, sitting where I was, you couldn’t hear what he said,” she says. “But afterward watching it on the television, I…I think it was a very…it was a lovely gesture.”
PHOTO: OWEN HUMPHREYS
Camilla also offered a little insight into her husband’s relationship with Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland. “A lot of people, seeing my husband actually take the bride’s mother by the hand to sign the registry, it’s something that moved everybody,” she explains. “It’s the things he does behind the scenes that people don’t know about. I don’t think people realize quite how kind he is.”
Meghan Markle‘s had more fashion moments than we can count since becoming the Duchess of Sussex, but it’s her royal wedding dress and tiara that are the most memorable yet. Both items are now on display at Windsor Castle with the Queen’s blessing—along with a surprise interview where the duchess explains exactly what made her “Markle sparkle” moment so perfect.
The Duchess and Duke of Sussex recorded a surprise joint interview to accompany the exhibit, titled A Royal Wedding: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. As visitors gaze at Markle’s stunning 16-and-a-half-foot wedding veil, Givenchy gown, and 100-watt tiara, they can hear directly from Markle how she landed on the beautiful bandeau tiara she wore for her wedding day.
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PHOTO: WPA Pool
“When it came to the tiara on the day, I was very fortunate to be able to chose this gorgeous art deco style bandeau tiara,” Markle explains on the exhibit’s recording. “Harry and I had gone to Buckingham Palace to meet with her Majesty the Queen to select one of the options that were there which was an incredibly surreal day as you can imagine.”
So what made Queen Mary’s 1932 diamond bandeau tiara the one for Meghan? “I think it was just perfect because it was so clean and simple—and also to that point, an extension of what Clare and I had been trying to do with the dress which was have something that could be so incredibly timeless but still feel modern,” she says.
PHOTO: Max Mumby/Indigo
The fairytale moment wouldn’t have been complete without Prince Harry by her side. He found the moment just as special as the bride. “Every girl’s dream to be able to try on a tiara, and, funnily enough, the one that suited the best, the one that looked the best on you without question, I shouldn’t have really even been there, but such an incredible loan by my grandmother, it was very sweet,” he says.
PHOTO: Max Mumby/Indigo
The exhibit includes more fascinating details about planning their fairytale wedding, from choosing the ceremony music to picking that famous bouquet of flowers. When it came to Markle’s custom Givenchy wedding dress, she says her connection with designer Clare Waight Keller was instantaneous. “I met her and I just knew it, I walked back to the house and I said to Harry, ‘She’s going to do my dress, I just know it,’ she says.
Could this wedding have been more ‘perfect’? We think not.
Last season, Riverdale ended with Archie Andrews wrongly accused of murdering Cassidy Brooke (remember him?) and faced with the harsh reality that he might end up in prison instead of high school. Meanwhile, Veronica basically emancipated herself from her father and came away with a new business endeavor in the process: Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe. Bughead seemed to be in fine form—for once—but Betty’s sister, Polly, was a different story. The elder Cooper sibling joined a cult, and it looked like Alice is her next target. Cheryl became an honorary serpent and coupled up with Toni, while legally emancipating herself from her mother and taking control of Thistlehouse. Oh, and Hal Cooper went to jail, as one would expect if you’re the Black Hood.
Got it? Good, because Riverdale returns for season three today (Wednesday, October 10) with a whole bunch of loose ends to tie up and a brand new mystery to reveal. Damn, can’t these people get any rest?
Actually, that’s exactly how Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa likes it. “Everyone is treating season three like it’s season one,” he tells Glamour.com. “We want this to be an edge-of-your-seat season, so we’re really excited. Unless you’re Archie, of course, who probably wouldn’t mind a little less drama.
“We’ll definitely know Archie’s fate by the end of the episode,” Aguirre-Sacasa promises. “One thing we’re doing a little bit different this year is jumping in time—three months to be exact—so when we meet [up with] Archie he’s mid-trial.” While Aguirre-Sacasa won’t reveal Archie’s odds of being set free, he will tell us plenty of other information, including some exciting news for Choni and Bughead fans. But with the news that Jughead’s mom and sister are coming on board (played by Gina Gershon and newcomer Trinity Likins), what does that mean for F.P. and Alice hopefuls? To our surprise, Aguirre-Sacasa is spilling the tea. Spoilers ahead!
PHOTO: Katie Yu/The CW
Fans have dissected the teaser trailer where the core four are at the lake, riding in the jalopy, etc. Is that all a dream sequence or, if it’s real, does that mean that Archie is exonerated?
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: Those scenes really happen, and we wanted to capture this idea of stealing one last moment of youth and innocence and, honestly, summer vacation. It’s like trying to get that last day of summer vacation to be the best day of summer vacation, and that’s what went into that episode. Those scenes really happened. I wasn’t there personally, but [I heard] the water was cold. It was a really hot day the scene was filmed, so even though the water was cold, I think everyone was really down for it.
Varchie fans will get some wish fulfillment in those scenes, but going forward, which pairing will have the happier season three? Varchie or Bughead?
RAS: I think right now Bughead [is going] to have the happier season three. I will say though to Varchie fans that Veronica and Archie are proving to be very much…they’re trying to hang on to each other through the troubles in a really visceral way. Even though they could be heading towards rocks, they’re really clinging to each other because they feel so deeply for each other.
Right. And Veronica has now severed ties with her father, owns Pop’s, and went through a major transition since we last saw her.
RAS: Veronica is not to be trifled with, and Hiram is the architect behind her unhappiness and Archie’s troubles. She’s not down with rolling over and just letting him steamroll over her happiness.
PHOTO: Katie Yu/The CW
Over the summer, Lochlyn Munro (Hal Cooper) told me he’ll be back this season. When can viewers expect to see Hal again?
RAS: Not in the first few episodes, but sooner than you might expect.
Should we expect him to be behind bars all season?
RAS: When we reconnect with him, he’s definitely behind bars, behind glass, behind barbed wire. He’s in maximum security, that’s for sure.
And what about Chic? His fate was left open-ended toward the end of season two.
RAS: That is buried a bit, I would say. But we haven’t seen the body. Even when you’ve seen the body, I say never say never.
PHOTO: THE CW
That’s why I have a theory that Cheryl’s uncle Claudius is really her father. I think he’s been impersonating his brother, and it was the uncle who we saw die at the end of season one.
RAS: [Laughs] That’s a theory that has been floated by a few people. It’s definitely something that’s within the realm of possibility on our show, that’s for sure.
Let’s talk about F.P. and Alice. We know from last season that Polly was trying to help Alice by drawing her into this cult, so how will that impact—if at all—Alice’s potential relationship with F.P.?
RAS: In a weird way, the farm could open the door for Falice because the farm says to be alive in the moment. Do whatever you think, burn the past, there is no future, there’s only now. So in a weird way, the farm could be seen as giving permission to Alice to pursue F.P. The bigger threat to them will be the fact that Alice is married to Hal and F.P. is married to Gladys.
Speaking of, what’s the state of the marriage between F.P. and Gladys?
RAS: They’re strained and estranged from each other. [Laughs]
Gina Gershon doesn’t appear as Gladys until December 12, which means there are two months of episodes from now until then. What will Falice’s relationship status be by then? One would assume they’d be in a relationship just to make things more complicated when Gladys enters the picture.
RAS: Yeah, I think if this wasn’t Riverdale and it was just Falice exploring their relationship, they would be in pretty deep by the time Gladys gets there. We do see them quite together and quite intimate, but Falice is also dealing with their part in a crime that happened 25 years earlier, which is sort of rearing its ugly head this season as well. So Falice doesn’t exist on a blissed-out island apart from the day-to-day trials and tribulations of Riverdale. They’re very much caught up in the season mystery as well.
Let’s move on to Cheryl and Toni. They were together by the end of the season, and Cheryl has emancipated herself from her mother and has Thistlehouse all to herself. So will Choni be moving in together?
RAS: We’re really enjoying them being the reigning queens of Riverdale High, which we’re going to play them as. They’re still in the honeymoon phase. They are kind of getting in and out of trouble with the Serpents, without the Serpents. They too will be drawn into the season-long mysteries, and, yes, there will be a discussion about Choni living together.
“I, too, was sexually assaulted — not 36 years ago but about 50 years ago,” Chung writes. “I have kept my dirty little secret to myself. Silence for five decades.”
She says the abuser was her family’s trusted doctor—the man who had delivered her as a baby in 1946. Much like Ford’s recollection before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the exact time and date may not be clear in her memory, but Chung writes with certainty about who assaulted her.
“It was the 1960s. I was in college. The sexual revolution was in full swing. The exact date and year are fuzzy. But details of the event are vivid — forever seared in my memory. Am I sure who did it? Oh yes, 100 percent.”
Similarly, Ford told the committee of her certainty about Kavanaugh when asked by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) how she was sure it was him. “The same way that I’m sure that I’m talking to you right now,” Ford said.
The details Chung describes in the piece are painful to read (and may be triggering to some). She visited her doctor to secure birth control and found herself on his examination table awaiting her first gynecological exam.
“While I stared at the ceiling, his right index finger massaged my clitoris. With his right middle finger inserted in my vagina, he moved both fingers rhythmically. He coached me verbally in a soft voice, ‘Just breathe. Ah-ah,’ mimicking the sound of soft breathing. ‘You’re doing fine,’ he assured me. Suddenly, to my shock, I had an orgasm for the first time in my life. My body jerked several times. Then he leaned over, kissed me, a peck on my lips, and slipped behind the curtain to his office area. I don’t remember saying anything to him. I could not even look at him. I quickly dressed and drove home.”
Chung thinks she may have told one of her sisters, but did not tell her parents or report the doctor to authorities. “It never crossed my mind to protect other women. Please understand, I was actually embarrassed about my sexual naiveté,” she writes. “I was in my 20s and knew nothing about sex. All I wanted to do was bury the incident in my mind and protect my family.”
In another heartbreaking detail (and an added layer to why some women don’t report assault), she says that her mother could neither read nor write in English—and she could not drive. (Her parents immigrated from China the year before she was born.) So that she did not have to return to the doctor’s office, Chung told her mother he lived too far away. She eventually told her husband, but doesn’t recall exactly when.
Like Ford, she says she is “terrified” about making this public revelation. “I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. Can you?” she asks. “If you can’t, I understand. I am frightened, I am scared, I can’t even cry.”
“I wish I could forget this truthful event, but I cannot because it is the truth. I am writing to you because I know that exact dates, exact years are insignificant. We remember exactly what happened to us and who did it to us. We remember the truth forever. Bravo, Christine, for telling the truth.”
Caution: Bachelor in Paradise finale spoilers ahead.
If Chris Randone and Krystal Nielson are looking for someone other than Bachelor in Paradise host Chris Harrison to officiate their wedding, they should look no further than fellow contestant John Graham. At the finale taping, Graham couldn’t stop raving about his support for the two. “They are head over heels for each other, and they are amazing together,” he told Glamour. “So supportive, and they’re moving in together. Everything about their relationship is awesome. I love them and support them 100%.” Even Tia got on the Chris and Krystal bandwagon when she told us that “as crazy as it is, they’re made for each other. I think they’ve got a damn good shot at this. It totally works.”
John and Tia should know. After all, they were with the pair for most of Paradise—the place where Chris and Krystal managed to rehab their image from their time on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. But what makes the pair certain they’ll thrive as a couple in the real world? And most important, what was up with Chris’ confusing proposal that made it seem like he might break up with Krystal? We caught up with the engaged couple to get the answers to all that and more.
PHOTO: Jessica Radloff
Chris, you kind of made viewers think you might be breaking up with Krystal during your proposal. Why?
Chris Randone: I wanted to let her know that I was so in love with who she was on the inside—her heart.
Krystal Nielson: I was nervous!
Chris: It was just something where I wanted to keep her on her toes because she always keeps me on my toes. I didn’t want to leave here holding her hand. I wanted to leave here secure in her heart. That’s how I felt, and that’s how it came out.
Krystal: I was watching him, hearing him say the words, but his body language was so into me, I was like, “Uh, I hear what you’re saying but your body language isn’t matching up. So…” I knew he was messing with me. [Laughs] For a moment, though, I was like, “What?” Then I was assessing the situation and was like, “Nah… he’s playing with me. He loves me. He loves me.”
Chris: She’s incredible. There was a moment in our fantasy suite date where she was talking about an ex, but I thought she was talking about the situation between her and I, and I thought she was about to end it. I couldn’t breathe for like 15 seconds when she was talking to me, so I was like, I’m going to give her a taste of her own medicine… [Laughs]
Is that really why you messed with her at the proposal then?
Chris: No, no. I just had this whole thing…I took an entire day to figure out what I wanted to say. They felt like vows. I wanted to pinpoint all the amazing things she’s done for me and the transformation she’s helped me with, the evolution. All the key moments we had in paradise, even in the beginning episode—there was so much depth and so much conversation that really brought us together. And here we are.
Would you consider getting married on Paradise next year?
Chris: That’s a really good question because we definitely want a beach wedding. I’m going to support anything she wants.
Krystal: [Yes], barefoot in the sand!
Wherever it is, you need people to throw glitter instead of rice once you’re married.
Chris: If that’s what she wants, we’re getting pounds of glitter. That’s a very good advice. I’m all for it. Love it.
What makes you guys know that you found your person?
Chris: For me, it was our one-on-one date. We were dancing in the water, and she had this glow. She kept smiling, and I looked into her eyes and it was in that moment that it was the eyes of the woman I wanted to look into forever. 100 percent. I knew right then and there I was going to get down on one knee in paradise. I was already sold. It was just something I felt in the inside. She has a very genuine heart and her soul is so beautiful, I couldn’t imagine connecting with another woman or having love for another woman.
Krystal: We talked about this early on. The way things were going, I had a feeling he was going to leave without friends and have a bad experience. [Because of that] I wanted to give him some advice. It was the day after the second rose ceremony, and I wanted to see what he would do with [my advice]. He just stepped up and listened and applied the feedback. He got vulnerable. I love a man who can take ownership. Through his actions, he really won my heart over.
Finally, Krystal, how do you feel about the fact that a black box was used to cover up your butt most of the time on Paradise?
Krystal: [Laughs] I’m annoyed! I worked really hard on leg days specifically to rock those bikinis.
Chris: She wore some incredible bikinis, and it’s very unfortunate that the black box takes that away.
Krystal: But it looked good. I looked good. [Laughs]
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
