Patrick Clancy, the father who lost all three children when his then-wife strangled them in their Massachusetts home, sat for his first joint television interview with his new wife, and her account of loved ones' early concerns reveals how extraordinary the path to rebuilding his life has been.
Clancy and Dr. Rachel Danis, an infertility specialist he married in April, appeared together on CBS's "60 Minutes" in a segment that aired Sunday. The interview, conducted by correspondent Ross Douthat, covered the couple's relationship, how their families initially responded, and Clancy's views on accountability and mental illness in the wake of his ex-wife Lindsay Clancy's mistrial earlier this month.
Danis told Douthat that when she began seeing Patrick Clancy, the people closest to her did not celebrate right away. They hesitated.
"Everyone paused, um, understandably so. I say everyone, I had told like a couple of close friends, and I think family members were picking up on it because they would ask what I'm doing that weekend or that evening and I would mention Pat. So people were catching on and I think people were worried."
The worry was not hard to understand. Patrick Clancy came home to his family's house in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2023, and found that Lindsay Clancy had fatally strangled their three children, Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and 8-month-old Callan, before throwing herself from a window. Lindsay Clancy survived. The defense argued she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time.
Callan, the youngest, did not die that night. Fox News reported that doctors initially restored the infant's heartbeat, and Patrick Clancy spent four days at Boston Children's Hospital before holding his son as he died on January 28, 2023.
Despite the weight of that history, Danis said she pressed forward. The couple first met in January 2024 while running in Central Park. Clancy had relocated to New York City after the killings, seeking what he described as "anonymity." Danis said the relationship brought a calm she had not expected.
"I would say and still say, for the first time, Sundays felt like Saturdays. So I didn't have a reason to stop."
She acknowledged having her own hesitations but said Patrick Clancy's intentions aligned with hers. "Life just got a lot calmer for me," Danis said. "And while I did have hesitations, you know, Pat was saying he wants the same things that I do."
Patrick Clancy had quietly remarried and begun rebuilding his life before the trial even concluded. The "60 Minutes" interview also revealed that the couple is expecting a child, a detail Douthat later confirmed during an appearance on "CBS Mornings."
The interview came just weeks after a judge declared a mistrial on September 4 in Lindsay Clancy's case. The jury deadlocked 11 to 1. Eleven jurors sided with the defense's argument that Lindsay Clancy was not guilty by reason of insanity. One holdout juror, Michael Desronvil, refused to join the majority.
Patrick Clancy testified during the trial. AP News reported that he admitted to battling suicidal thoughts after the killings and experienced a panic attack while on the stand.
When Douthat asked what justice should look like in a case where mental illness is central, Clancy did not call for harsh punishment. But he did not wave accountability away, either.
"I think we can find a compassionate way to deal with these tragedies, and that doesn't mean no accountability. It just means that we recognize the suffering and the stigma and we try to find a way to prevent this from happening in the future."
"That's always how I've looked at it," he added.
Clancy has maintained since the killings that Lindsay Clancy's mental illness drove her actions. He told "60 Minutes" he rejected the media labels that followed the case. "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." He also pushed back on social media conspiracy theories that emerged after the mistrial, calling them "a huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal mental health."
Fox News reported that Lindsay Clancy told Patrick the memory of killing their children was "like a dream," comparing it to how someone remembers a dream after waking. The defense argued she had spiraled after the birth of their third child and had been prescribed a cocktail of psychiatric medications before the killings.
Lindsay Clancy's legal situation remains unresolved. Her defense attorney has moved to block a retrial on double jeopardy grounds following the mistrial. Meanwhile, her ongoing psychiatric care has drawn scrutiny, her treatment reportedly costs Massachusetts taxpayers more than $620,000 a year.
The jury's 11-to-1 deadlock left the case in limbo. Whether prosecutors will push for a second trial or accept the outcome remains an open question. So does the broader one Patrick Clancy raised on national television: whether the system can hold someone accountable and still recognize that mental illness, not malice, drove the act.
Patrick Clancy recalled the worst moment of his life, pleading with doctors to save at least one of his children. "Just give me one. Just give me one kid," he said, describing his desperate words at the hospital.
Now he is starting a new family with a woman whose own loved ones needed convincing. Danis's account of friends and relatives "catching on" and growing worried is a small, human detail, but it captures something larger: the sheer improbability of what Clancy is attempting. He lost three children. He forgave the woman who killed them. He moved to a new city, met someone, married her, and is expecting a baby.
None of that erases what happened in Duxbury. Three children are dead, a trial produced no verdict, and taxpayers are footing the bill for the woman who killed them. Compassion is fine. But somewhere in this story, accountability still has to mean something.
