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In the wake of his ex-wife’s mistrial, Patrick Clancy opened up on 60 Minutes.
The only thing worse than the trial, the deadlock-induced-mistrial, and the surrounding discourse was the original tragedy.
Patrick lost all three of his children, even though he believed at one time that one would pull through.
He’s speaking about mental illness, what he might have done differently, grief, and why he chose to forgive Lindsay.
Patrick Clancy spoke to ’60 Minutes’
Even though 60 Minutes is a ghoulish shell of what it was before Bari Weiss, the once-lauded CBS News program does still exist.
On Sunday, September 20, Patrick Clancy sat down for a 60 Minutes interview in the wake of his ex-wife’s mistrial.
As with so many of us, one of his biggest concerns is the way that the at times unhinged discourse surrounding this family tragedy distracts from the key issue of perinatal mental health.
“I could piece together what it was like to be really, really anxious or depressed, but I didn’t know how to manage a postpartum illness,” Patrick admitted.
He observed: “I think mental illness has this ability to be tragically deceptive.”
Most postpartum mental health struggles are not deadly. Postpartum depression is not uncommon — in fact, it even has folksy labels such as the “baby blues.”
Few people understand postpartum psychosis, as the (again, often unhinged) discourse surrounding the Lindsay Clancy case has made painfully clear.
As Patrick mourns the deaths of Cora, Dawson, and Callan, he still wrestles with what he might have done differently. But he has found a kind of peace with the past.
“I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time, and I live with the outcome,” he acknowledged.
“I live with it every day,” Patrick added, “but I think I did the best I could.”
8-month-old Callan lived for four days and died in his arms
Patrick Clancy’s youngest child did not die at the scene after Lindsay strangled all three children and then leapt from a window in an attempt to end her own life.
Callan was airlifted to the hospital, where he was kept technically alive for another four days while doctors and nurses fought to save his life.
Patrick described remaining beside the 8-month-old and talking to him.
“I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live,” he recalled.
“I remember just thinking, ‘Just give me one, just give me one kid’ and I would raise him as best I could,” Patrick shared, “and I would give him the best life I possibly could.”
Patrick, who has remarried, also spoke about his ex-wife and how she spoke after the tragedy.
Lindsay, he shared, told him that the horrible killing “felt like a dream.”
She never asked Patrick for forgiveness. He told 60 Minutes that he gave it to her anyway.
“I think when it comes to forgiveness, I also felt that if I didn’t get there, I would be eaten up inside forever,” he reasoned.
Our hearts continue to go out to this broken family in the wake of this horrible tragedy. The trial and the online discourse, especially with political malefactors trying to exploit this as a “culture war” flashpoint, have all made this even harder than it already was.
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