Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, has shared how he had to forgive her for killing their children or he’d be ‘eaten up inside forever’.
In a new interview, he claimed he had done the best he could while his then-wife struggled with mental illness.
For much of the summer, Clancy was on trial for murdering her three young kids: Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months, in January 2023, before attempting to take her own life.
She attended the trial in a wheelchair, having been left paralyzed after jumping from a second-floor window.
Patrick had testified during the trial, speaking on his ex-wife’s mental struggles after giving birth but has now spoken out.
‘I didn’t know how to manage a postpartum illness. I think mental illness has this ability to be tragically deceptive,’ he told CBS.
‘When it comes to forgiveness, I also felt that if I didn’t get there, I would be eaten up inside forever,’ he added.
The 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse has never denied the killings but her defense claimed she was in a state of postpartum psychosis when the crimes took place and was not criminally responsible for her actions.
Symptoms of postpartum psychosis — which is treated as a medical emergency — include insomnia, delusions, hallucinations, severe confusion, and dangerous thoughts regarding self-harm, suicide, or harming the infant.
One holdout juror refused to acquit the Massachusetts mother of legal responsibility, so the case was declared a mistrial three weeks ago.
Judge William Sullivan, who presided over Clancy’s case, has sealed the jurors’ identities, claiming that they face a ‘real and present’ risk of harm.
Part of the prosecution’s case alleged that she had sent her then-husband on an errand at the time of the crimes, deliberately removing him from the home.
He was thrown into the spotlight during week seven of the trial, subjected to claims he was actually to blame for the deaths of their children.
‘I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time.’ Patrick said. ‘And I live with the outcome. I live with it every day.’
Speaking about the ‘lies’, he added the speculation was ‘deeply harmful to the legacy of my children’ and amounted to a ‘huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health.’
He has since moved to New York City with his new wife, Rachel Danis, hoping to find some anonymity and normality.
Patrick said he looks forward to starting a family with his new partner and telling his future children about their siblings.
The case remains unresolved and is set to return to court on September 29 at Plymouth Superior Court in Massachusetts.
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