Patrick Clancy said he felt like he had no purpose after his three children were killed. “There was a time when I didn’t think I would live to be 35,” Clancy, 36, said in an interview with 60 Minutes. “And I was completely okay with that.” His interview with correspondent Ross Douthat comes after his ex-wife’s mistrial earlier this month. The court has yet to determine whether Patrick’s ex-wife, Lindsay Clancy, will be retried for the murders of their children: 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan. It also comes as Patrick and his wife, Rachel Danis, face intense public scrutiny, becoming subjects of suspicion and speculation online on social media. What happened after Callan was born In October 2022, five months after Callan was born, Patrick said Lindsay told him she had had a few sleepless nights. Over the next two months, Lindsay made repeated visits to the emergency room. She herself entered a program for patients with postpartum depression and was discharged after one day of treatment. Lindsay was also prescribed an increasing number of prescription medications. Patrick said he had a difficult time helping his wife navigate the medical system and didn’t know how to handle a postpartum illness. “I think mental illness has the capacity to be tragically deceptive,” he said. December was the lowest point, Patrick said. “It was a huge struggle for her: just a huge lack of sleep, very, very deep depression, intrusive thoughts.” Lindsay was admitted to McLean Psychiatric Hospital on New Year’s Eve. She was treated for depression and discharged days later, arriving home in time to celebrate Cora’s birthday on January 7. The deaths of Cora, Dawson and Callan Less than three weeks later, Patrick said he returned home from running an errand and found Lindsay lying in the backyard, her throat and wrists cut, paralyzed after jumping from an upstairs window. She said she found her children strangled in the basement. Cora and Dawson were dead. Callan was airlifted to Boston Children’s Hospital. “I really thought there was a chance Callan would live,” Patrick recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘Just give me one. Just give me one child, and I would raise him the best I could, and give him the best life I could. I would tell him about his brother and his sister.’ And I had hope in that.” Callan’s heart continued to beat for four days. “I had to hug him. I laid down next to him. And he died in my arms,” Patrick said. Patrick Clancy forgives his ex-wife In the days after the tragedy, Patrick wrote tributes to each of his three children and decided to publicly forgive Lindsay. “I saw headlines that said, you know, ‘Killer Mom,’ ‘Killer Baby,’ and ‘Monster.’ And none of them were accurate,” Patrick said. “I think if people said, ‘She did something horrible,’ I think everyone would agree with that… But I think it was her mental illness that caused that.” So I shared those words.” Lindsay never asked for forgiveness, but Patrick said he gave it to her. Both have filed medical malpractice lawsuits against health care providers who treated Lindsay. Some have denied wrongdoing and others have yet to respond to the lawsuit. Patrick said he believes “I did the best I could with what I had at the time.” And I live with the outcome. I live with that every day.” Patrick said he realized he could no longer stay in Duxbury and moved to New York City in April, seeking anonymity. Trial in the courts, and in the court of public opinion. In July, Lindsay Clancy’s trial began. Her lawyers argued that she was suffering from a dangerous postpartum psychosis and could not be held criminally responsible for her actions. The trial became a national obsession, generating furious arguments about the relationship between mental illness and criminal guilt, how the medical system works. fails mothers and how men and women understand each other, Patrick testified and found himself at the center of an online swarm of detectives and influencers analyzing every detail of the case, developing theories that portray him as uncaring, unfaithful, and even the murderer of his children. And it makes it difficult to be in public and it’s possible that some of those people, after seeing lie after lie, start to believe it and that’s what we’re left with,” he said. One of the catalysts for the theories about Patrick was his apparent stoicism on the witness stand. Patrick said testifying was difficult for him and that he had a “massive, traumatic” panic attack on the second day of his testimony. “They put me in an ambulance,” Patrick said. “They offered me some medication, but I said, ‘Don’t take it.’ I want to, because I want to go back and I want to finish this to end this.’ And I came back and finished the testimony.” Lindsay’s trial ended with a hung jury earlier this month. Moving forward, Patrick says connecting with survivors and experts in the field of postpartum health has helped him move forward. He remarried in April to Dr. Rachel Danis, a fertility doctor in New York City. Danis said the couple met in January 2024 at a New York City club and met over coffee. “Pat He took out his phone to pay and I noticed. “This adorable photo of children as wallpaper,” said Danis. “I just asked, ‘Who are those beauties?’ And Pat said, ‘Those are my kids.’ And then I think I asked them if they lived in Massachusetts and Pat said, “They died.” And this is just in the box.” Danis said he tried to “take some of the weight off of Pat.” “I can’t bring your children back,” he said. “But if I can honor them and allow Pat to grieve, but also continue to honor them in the present, I guess that’s all I can do.” The couple is starting a family, and Patrick is preparing to one day tell his future son about his older siblings, Cora, Dawson and Callan. “I agree, you have different relationships with your children, but they are all your children,” he said. “And I can’t wait to tell you about your brothers and sisters.” More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press in:
