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Rob Delaney and his wife Leah Delaney welcomed a new addition to the family this summer.
The Catastrophe star revealed in an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine that Leah gave birth to a son in August. Their family grew by one just months after their third son, Henry, died from brain cancer in January. He was two and a half years old.
The actor announced the family’s loss on his Facebook page in February. He wrote, “Henry had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2016, shortly after his first birthday, following persistent vomiting and weight loss. He had surgery to remove the tumor and further treatment through the early part of 2017. Then the cancer returned last autumn and he died in January.”
Although the two sons never met, they hold a special connection. Leah got pregnant and Henry was the first person they told about the news. “We likely would’ve had a fourth anyway. But I mean, there’s mixed feelings,” Delaney told the publication. “It’s sort of like they touch each other a little bit, but they almost exist in separate lanes. Having another child in no way, shape or form eases the grief of Henry dying.”
He then explained how the loss of one child and the birth of another “doesn’t make our new son any less magical.” He said, “I want to gobble him up and he deserves our full attention and love, and he grew in the same womb as Henry.”
Rob and Leah announced in June that they were getting ready to have another kid together.
In September, the comedian penned an essay about Henry’s death and the hospital visits leading up to it. He wrote at one point, “A regular baby’s smile is wonderful enough. When a sick baby with partial facial paralysis smiles, it’s golden. Especially if it’s my baby.”
Henry died at their home and was “so happy” to be in his comfortable surroundings. Delaney told Sunday Times, “It was just us, and it was really special.”
On Christmas, Delaney took to Twitter and wrote about the holiday without one member of their family. “Our first Christmas without Henry came & went,” he wrote. “The day itself was okay, maybe because there were so many horrible, painful days leading up to it; we must have hit our quota or something. We talked about him a lot & included his memory throughout the day.”
He said in a second tweet, “I speak publicly about Henry in an effort to destigmatize grief. My family is sad & in pain because our beautiful 2 yr old boy died after a long illness. Why wouldn’t we be sad? Why wouldn’t we be angry and confused?”
Here’s to their new son bringing joy and happiness amid difficult times.
Congratulations to the entire Delaney family on their newest addition! Read the full interview in The Sunday Times Magazine here.