McCain revealed the miscarriage in an emotional op-ed for published Friday by the New York Times. She said she received word of the miscarriage the same day that she and other "The View" co-hosts participated in a photoshoot ahead of a late-May appearance on the cover of The New York Times Magazine.
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"I knew I was pregnant before I formally knew I was pregnant. My body told me in all the ways women are familiar with. It told me in the same ways that I was miscarrying. The confirmation from my doctor came the day of that photoshoot, at the worst possible time," McCain wrote, adding that she sees "a woman hiding her shock and sorrow" when she looks back at the photos.
McCain then took several days off of work to grieve in private but later chose to speak out about the situation, which she characterized as a "horrendous experience" but one that is "distressingly common."
"To this day, the subject of a miscarriage carries so much cultural taboo. Miscarriage is a pain too often unacknowledged. Yet it is real, and what we have lost is real. We feel sorrow and we weep because our babies were real," she wrote.
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McCain continued: "They were conceived, and they lived, fully human and fully ours - and then they died. We deserve the opportunity to speak openly of them, to share what they were and to mourn. More important, they deserve to be spoken of, shared and mourned. These children, shockingly small, shockingly helpless, entirely the work of our love and our humanity, are children."
While she came to terms with the miscarriage, McCain said she at times blamed herself but found solace in her spiritual beliefs, through her relationships with other women and through memories of her late father, Sen. John McCain.
She wrote: "When my father passed, I took refuge in the hope that someday we would be united in the hereafter. I still imagine that moment, even as I trust that a loving God will see it happen. Now I imagine it a bit differently. There is my father - and he is holding his granddaughter in his hands."