Pretty Little Liars star Shay Mitchell has revealed she suffered a miscarriage last year.
The Canadian actress, 31, said she lost the “child of my hopes and dreams” as she looked back on 2018.
Mitchell, who is starring in TV series You, was sharing pictures from the previous 12 months on her Instagram story on New Year’s Day.
Towards the end of the series of images she wrote that though 2018 “was an amazing year, it didn’t come without some hardships”.
She then posted a photo of an ultrasound with a broken heart emoji. Mitchell, who has nearly 22 million Instagram followers, wrote: “We all have to deal with various struggles and challenges in life.
“And sometimes it’s easier to only showcase the good times on social media, which is what leads many people to criticize it for its lack of authenticity.
“Having so many people follow me on Instagram and read my posts is both incredibly humbling and hugely uplifting.”
She then told fans she lost a child last year. Mitchell said: “The support and affection that so many of you show me lifts me up during even my darkest days, one of which happened last year after I miscarried and lost the child of my hopes and dreams.
“In the spirit of the new year, I think that we need to remember that we are all on this journey together — in good times and bad — and to remind ourselves that we seldom really know or understand the struggles and hardships that other people are going through.”
Mitchell did not say who the father of the child was. She rose to fame after playing Emily Fields in teen drama Pretty Little Liars from 2010 to 2017.
In 2018, Mitchell appeared in horror film The Possession Of Hannah Grace.