Lindsay Clancy’s former husband said he forgave her for killing their three young children in his first televised interview since a deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial.
Speaking to CBS News’ ’60 Minutes’ programme, Patrick Clancy opened up about his grief and the suicidal thoughts he grappled with after the killings.
“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. I think mental illness has this ability to be tragically deceptive,” he said.
He told how he suffered a panic attack while testifying at Clancy’s trial as jurors played his 911 call to report his children’s deaths.
Mr Clancy could be heard howling and crying after he discovered the bodies of his children in the family’s basement as a confused dispatcher repeatedly asked what happened.
He told CBS: “I went to a back room and I started having this massive, traumatic panic attack. My heart was pounding, and they put me in an ambulance.
“They offered me some medication, but I said, ‘I don’t want it because I want to go back and I want to finish this, so I can be done with this.’”
Mr Clancy said his youngest son, Callan, did not die immediately on that fatal day on January 24, 2023, but lived four more days before dying in his arms.
He said while holding his eight-month-old son in one hand, he used the other to type tributes to his other children, Cora, five and Dawson, two.
“I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live,” he said. “I remember just thinking, ‘Just give me one, just give me one kid’ and I would raise him as best I could and I would give him the best life I possibly could,” he said.
Now that his kids are gone, Clancy said he still talks to them “all the time”.
Earlier this month, 11 of 12 jurors were ready to clear Lindsay Clancy of criminal responsibility.
The majority felt the Massachusetts mother was in the grip of a rare condition called postpartum psychosis when she strangled her children in 2023.
However, a lone juror sided with prosecutors, who argued Clancy knew what she was doing. The deadlock forced a judge to declare a mistrial on September 4.
Lindsay Clancy admitted to the killing of her three children from the very start.
Her own lawyers do not deny she did it, but said she should not be held criminally responsible for her actions, arguing she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and extreme mental illness at the time.
Mr Clancy said he has forgiven his ex-wife for their children’s deaths.
“I saw headlines that say ‘killer mom’ and ‘baby murderer monster’ and none of them were accurate,” he said. “I believed that it was her mental illness that caused that.”
Mr Clancy testified that his then-wife was “very dedicated” and loved her kids, but was grappling with stress, anxiety, and other mental health issues that developed in the aftermath of childbirth.
From September 2022 to January 2023, Lindsay was prescribed numerous medications from several different doctors, “trying to get on the right medication,” he said.
Eventually, she “described thoughts of hurting the kids or them having some sort of ailment,” Mr Clancy testified, adding he wasn’t concerned for their safety because she didn’t show “any intention” of harming them.
When he came home on January 24, 2023, he found the children strangled in the basement and Lindsay Clancy outside, lying face-up and bleeding in their backyard.
Mr Clancy said the stress from the murders and trial took a toll on his mental health.
“There was a time I didn’t think I would live to see my 35th birthday, and I was completely fine with it,” he said.
Mr Clancy was asked by CBS correspondent Ross Douthat whether he feels angry at himself, to which he replied: “I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time, and I live with the outcome.”
He added: “I live with it every day.”
Mr Clancy also addressed social media conspiracy theories surrounding the case, which have included unfounded claims that he was connected to the death of his children.
“It’s deeply harmful to the legacy of my children. It is a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health,” he said.
Lawyers for Mr Clancy recently announced they will take legal action to stop the barrage of online conspiracy theorists.
After the traumatic murders of his children, Mr Clancy moved to New York City to start over. There he met his new wife, Dr Rachel Danis, a fertility doctor, who described him as the “most selfless and supportive partner”.
After getting married in April this year, Danis became the subject of unfounded conspiracy theories alongside her new husband.
Joining him in the interview, she said: “I don’t understand how the story has been so twisted.
“I was just a girl that met a guy running in Central Park on a really cold Saturday. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
The couple hope to start their own family, but Mr Clancy said he will tell his future children about those he lost.
“I think every parent can agree, you have different relationships with your kids, but they’re all your kids, and I can’t wait to tell them about their brothers and sister,” he said, referring to Callan, Dawson and Cora.
During the trial, neither side disputed that Clancy strangled her children in the family’s home before trying to end her own life.
But her attorney said she was a loving mother experiencing deep delusions and other mental health problems, for which she had been getting treatment.
The Plymouth County district attorney has yet to say whether he’ll seek to put Clancy on trial again.
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