Patrick Clancy says he forgave Lindsay Clancy for killing their three children so he wouldn’t be “eaten up inside forever"

• Patrick Clancy explains why he forgave ex-wife Lindsay Clancy after she killed their three children.

• The father reveals what happened when his eight-month-old son Callan died in his arms.

• Clancy says he believed Lindsay's mental illness caused the deaths and feared hatred would consume him.

It's astonishing and almost impossible to believe that a father, who lost all three of his children, could separate the woman he loved from what she did and still forgive her.

Patrick Clancy lost all three of his children in the space of five days. But as the horror of what happened sank in, he made a decision that is almost impossible to understand: he forgave the woman who killed them.

Three years after Lindsay Clancy killed their children, Cora, Dawson and Callan, Patrick has explained for the first time in a major television interview why he chose forgiveness and what life has looked like since the tragedy.

His interview with CBS's 60 Minutes came weeks after Lindsay's murder trial ended in a mistrial when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she was criminally responsible for the deaths.

Pulse has previously reported extensively on the case, including the evidence presented during Lindsay's trial, her defence of postpartum psychosis and the events that led to the mistrial.

But Patrick's latest interview offered something the courtroom could not: a glimpse into the father left behind.

On January 24, 2023, Patrick returned to the family's home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, after briefly leaving to run an errand.

What he found changed his life forever. His three children had been strangled; Cora, 5, and Dawson, 3, were already dead. Their eight-month-old brother, Callan, was still alive and was rushed to Boston Children's Hospital.

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Patrick held on to hope that his youngest child might survive.

“I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live,” he told 60 Minutes.

“I remember just thinking, ‘Just give me one. Just give me one kid, and I would raise him as best I could. I'd tell him about his brother and sister.’”

Callan survived for four days. Patrick spent those days beside him before his baby son eventually died in his arms.

“I got to hold him. I got to lay down next to him. And he died in my arms,” he said.

While sitting beside Callan, Patrick also wrote tributes to each of his children because he was afraid they would be forgotten.

Then he forgave Lindsay.

“I saw headlines that said, you know, ‘Killer Mom,’ and ‘Baby Murderer,’ ‘Monster,’” Patrick said. “And none of them were accurate.”

Patrick said he believed Lindsay's mental illness caused what happened.

“And I think when it comes to forgiveness, I also felt that if I didn't get there, I would be eaten up inside forever.”

When asked whether Lindsay had ever asked him to forgive her, Patrick gave a short answer.

“No. But I gave it to her.”

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Patrick's decision is particularly striking because Lindsay has never disputed that she killed their three children.

The central legal question has been whether she was criminally responsible for what she did. Her lawyers argued that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and had lost contact with reality.

Prosecutors disputed that explanation, arguing that Lindsay's actions showed planning and that she understood what she was doing.

The five-week trial ended in September with a hung jury. Eleven jurors reportedly favoured finding Lindsay not criminally responsible, while one juror disagreed, preventing the unanimous verdict required for a decision.

The mistrial left the case unresolved. But for Patrick, the question of forgiveness was separate from the court's question of criminal responsibility.

He told 60 Minutes that he had asked Lindsay whether she remembered killing the children. Her response, he said, was that it was “like a dream”.

“She remembered it much in the way you would remember a dream after waking up,” Patrick said.

After the deaths, Patrick said his entire sense of purpose disappeared. There were no school runs, bedtime routines or children waiting for him at home.

“There was no family routine, no bedtime stories, no purpose,” he said.

At one point, his grief became so overwhelming that he did not expect to live much longer.

“There was a time where I didn't think I would live to see my 35th birthday,” Patrick said. “And I was completely fine with it.”

Eventually, he left Duxbury and moved to New York City, where he hoped to grieve away from the attention surrounding the case.

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He has since found ways to keep his children's memories present.

Their toys and personal belongings are still around his home. In Duxbury, a playground was also created in their memory, incorporating details associated with each child. And Patrick still dreams about them.

In one dream, he said, Cora walked into the kitchen.

“I just look at her and I — it was, like, I basically just said, ‘Where have you been?’ And she comes up to me and gives me a big hug.”

But while Patrick was trying to find quiet healing in New York, the reality of the trial inevitably dragged him back into the public eye. 

Social media users dissected his behaviour, appearance and testimony, with some accusing him of being uncaring, unfaithful or even suggesting that he was responsible for his children's deaths.

Patrick rejected those claims.

“It's deeply harmful to the legacy of my children,” he said. “It is a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health.”

He also revealed that appearing calm during parts of his testimony did not mean the experience was easy.

During the second day of his testimony, he suffered what he described as a “massive traumatic panic attack” after learning that a 911 call from the night his children died would be played in court.

He was taken to an ambulance and offered medication but refused it because he wanted to return to the courtroom and finish his testimony.

“I want to go back, and I want to finish this so I can be done with this,” he recalled saying.

Patrick has since remarried. He met Dr Rachel Danis, a fertility doctor, in New York in 2024. They eventually married in April 2026.

He continues to live with the loss of three children and has chosen not to let hatred become another permanent part of his life.