Rob Delaney has revealed that his wife gave birth to their fourth child in August, just months after the death of their son Henry.
The Catastrophe star told The Sunday Times Magazine his wife Leah became pregnant before Henry died and he was the first person they told.
Delaney announced the death of his two-year-old son on Twitter in February and confirmed Leah was pregnant again in June.
Just had 2 typically wonderful @NHSEnglandLDN midwives visit my pregnant wife & I for a home birth assessment. Love to all marching for the NHS today. See my sad love letter to the NHS below. https://t.co/isAkRDqh2X
— rob delaney (@robdelaney) June 30, 2018
Discussing whether the decision to have another child was conflicted, he told the magazine: “We likely would’ve had a fourth anyway. But I mean, there’s mixed feelings.
“It’s sort of like they touch each other a little bit, but they almost exist in separate lanes.
“Having another child in no way, shape or form eases the grief of Henry dying.
“But also having Henry dying doesn’t make our new son any less magical.
“I want to gobble him up and he deserves our full attention and love, and he grew in the same womb as Henry.”
He said he now has to work hard to battle paranoia about his children’s health after Henry first started throwing up when he was nine months old.
He said it “wouldn’t be fair on our kids”, but added he is “terrified of anyone vomiting. It’s like PTSD. If anyone vomits, I think, ‘Oh, that must be a brain tumour,’ and I have to calm down.”
Delaney compared the grief he feels over the loss of his child to his previous battle with alcoholism, saying: “For me, getting sober some years ago, and then dealing with depression after being sober for a while, those were kicking around the football on a dusty pitch that was the warm-up for the f****** world cup of losing a child.
“So I am grateful that I had been tenderised and slapped around by some other things, yes. Because I’m barely surviving this, and I think those things might be making the difference. So thank goodness they happened.”
Our first Christmas without Henry came & went. The day itself was okay, maybe because there were so many horrible, painful days leading up to it; we must have hit our quota or something. We talked about him a lot & included his memory throughout the day.
— rob delaney (@robdelaney) December 26, 2018
On December 26 he reflected on his first Christmas without Henry on Twitter, writing: “Our first Christmas without Henry came & went. The day itself was okay, maybe because there were so many horrible, painful days leading up to it; we must have hit our quota or something.
“We talked about him a lot & included his memory throughout the day.
“I speak publicly about Henry in an effort to destigmatize grief. My family is sad & in pain because our beautiful 2 yr old boy died after a long illness. Why wouldn’t we be sad? Why wouldn’t we be angry and confused?
“Tweets like this aren’t therapeutic to me, nor are they “updates”. I just want other bereaved parents & siblings to feel seen/heard/respected/loved. And maybe they might help someone not schooled in grief support a friend better. I don’t know.”