Patrick Clancy, the father whose three young children were killed by his ex-wife in 2023, is expecting a baby with his new wife Rachel Danis, a quiet step forward in a life marked by unimaginable loss.
CBS News correspondent Ross Douthat confirmed the pregnancy on CBS Mornings Monday, one day after his 60 Minutes interview with Clancy and Danis aired Sunday night. When Douthat told the couple during the sit-down, "And you guys are starting a family," Danis answered simply: "Yes." It was Douthat's first assignment for the program, and he conceded the phrasing could have been more direct.
"Maybe starting a family was a, maybe that was too, you know, too coy a way of asking it," Douthat told CBS Mornings host Nate Burleson. "This is, this was my first 60 Minutes interview. So you know, when I'm a few years in, I'll ask the question more, more you know straightforwardly, but yes they're having a child."
The interview marked Patrick Clancy's first extended public appearance since the trial of his ex-wife, Lindsay Clancy, ended in a mistrial earlier this month. A jury deadlocked 11-1 after Lindsay Clancy, a 36-year-old former labor and delivery nurse, mounted a defense based on postpartum psychosis, what many refer to as the insanity defense. Prosecutors have not yet announced whether they will seek a retrial.
On that date, Lindsay Clancy killed the couple's three children, five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan, at the family's $650,000 home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, a suburb south of Boston. Patrick Clancy had left to pick up medicine and a takeout order. When he returned, the door was locked. He found the children with resistance bands around their necks.
Lindsay Clancy had attempted suicide. Patrick Clancy told police at the scene what he discovered, shouting words no parent should ever have to say. The youngest child, Callan, survived four days after the attack before dying in his father's arms.
Lindsay Clancy later admitted to fatally strangling all three children. She faces three counts of first-degree murder, as Fox News has reported. The defense argued she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis when she carried out the killings.
In the weeks before the murders, Lindsay Clancy had begun telling her husband about intrusive thoughts. Patrick Clancy testified for two days at trial about her mental state. "She described thoughts of hurting the kids or them having some sort of ailment," he said. The thoughts started around early December 2022, roughly months after Callan's birth.
The mistrial that followed the 11-1 deadlock left the case in legal limbo. One juror held out against the majority, and the question of whether Lindsay Clancy will face a second trial remains open.
Patrick Clancy moved to New York City in the spring of 2023, months after the killings. He met Rachel Danis, a New York infertility specialist, while running in Central Park. Danis described the encounter in plain terms during the 60 Minutes interview.
"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 two met around the same time Clancy filed for divorce from Lindsay Clancy in February 2024. They later married, and Clancy founded the Heard Foundation in memory of Cora, Dawson, and Callan, an organization dedicated to addressing perinatal mental illness. He has been quietly rebuilding his life while the criminal case against his ex-wife continued.
Clancy did not hide the depth of his suffering during the interview. He told Douthat he came close to not surviving the aftermath.
"There was a time I didn't think I would live to see my 35th birthday, and I was completely fine with it."
That admission lands harder knowing what came before it. A father who buried three children under the age of six, who watched the youngest die in his arms days after the attack, who then had to testify about his ex-wife's mental deterioration, and who still chose to advocate for understanding rather than vengeance.
Patrick Clancy has taken a position that surprises many observers. In a GoFundMe post, he asked the public to forgive Lindsay Clancy, writing that "the real Lindsay was generously loving and caring towards everyone." He attributed the killings to mental illness, not malice.
During the 60 Minutes interview, he pushed back on the media coverage his ex-wife received. "I saw headlines that say 'killer mom' and 'baby murderer monster' and none of them were accurate," Clancy said. "I believed that it was her mental illness that caused that."
He also addressed conspiracy theories that have circulated online about the case. His lawyers issued a statement this month promising "consequences" for anyone peddling "baseless" theories. Clancy himself called the speculation damaging.
"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."
When asked about regrets, Clancy offered no dramatic confession. "I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time," he said. "I live with the outcome. I live with it every day."
Meanwhile, Lindsay Clancy's defense attorney has moved to block any retrial on double jeopardy grounds, adding another layer of uncertainty to a case that has divided legal observers and the public alike.
The Clancy interview was Ross Douthat's first assignment since joining 60 Minutes. Douthat, a former conservative columnist for The New York Times, was hired in July by CBS News Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss as part of a broader overhaul of the long-running program.
Weiss, the founder of the center-right Free Press, was brought in by then-new Paramount CEO David Ellison in October. CNN reported that Weiss viewed 60 Minutes "as calcified and resistant to change." Days after that assessment became public, Weiss handpicked former New York Times tech columnist Nick Bilton to replace longtime producer Tanya Simon. Scott Pelley, one of the show's longest-serving journalists, was fired. Anderson Cooper left of his own accord in May.
The 59th season premiered September 13 to mostly positive reviews. One episode drew an estimated 7.9 million viewers. New York Times media reporter Ben Mullin posted on X after the premiere: "The verdict is in: it's still '60 Minutes!'"
Douthat's handling of the Clancy interview, his willingness to sit with a grieving father and his new wife, and to let the pregnancy confirmation emerge naturally rather than as a gotcha, suggests the revamped program may be finding its footing. Whether the new 60 Minutes can sustain that tone across harder political stories remains to be seen.
Danis, for her part, addressed her role in Patrick Clancy's life with a directness that matched his own. She acknowledged she could not undo what happened but spoke about what she could offer going forward.
"I can't bring his kids back. But if I can honor them and allow Pat to grieve, but also just continue to honor them in the present, it, I guess that's all I can do."
Recent photos show what appears to be a baby bump, and Clancy's decision to break his silence publicly, first about his grief, then about his future, has drawn both sympathy and scrutiny. Some have questioned the timeline of his new relationship. Others have attacked him online with conspiracy theories about the murders themselves.
The holdout juror who caused the mistrial has since spoken publicly, adding fuel to a debate that shows no sign of settling. Whether prosecutors pursue a second trial will determine whether this case reaches a legal conclusion or remains permanently unresolved.
Patrick Clancy lost three children in a single evening. He chose forgiveness over bitterness, advocacy over silence, and now, with a baby on the way, life over despair. Whatever comes next in the courtroom, that choice belongs to him.
