Patrick Clancy gave an interview to Ross Douthat on “60 Minutes.” The internet promptly got to business picking his entire interview apart.

First, let’s look at the content of the interview itself. Despite the ranting of crazy people online, Patrick Clancy had nothing to do with the murder of his children. Even Lindsay Clancy’s own lawyer says that. The interview is a very abbreviated and condensed timeline of what happened, and how Patrick viewed it.

There were two particularly emotional moments in the interview. We already knew that Patrick Clancy was the one who discovered Lindsay outside after her suicide attempt, and that he found the children. But his description of his last days with baby Callan, who died four days later, was devastating.

Cora and Dawson were dead. Callan somehow survived and was airlifted to Boston Children’s Hospital.

Patrick Clancy: So, I didn’t have all the details of Callan’s condition. I just knew that they got a heartbeat back. So I remember– (SIGH) that night, I– I– I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live. And I– I remember just thinking, “Just gimme one. Just gimme one kid, and I would raise him as best I could, and I would give him the best life I possibly could. I’d tell him about his brother and sister.” And I was holdin’ out hope for that. And then when I got to the hospital, I saw the doctor. I saw the look on her face, and– and I knew that it– it wasn’t gonna be– a good prognosis.

Callan’s heart kept beating for four days.

Patrick Clancy: I’m so grateful for those four days that I had with him. And I’m so grateful he hung on.

Ross Douthat: Did you talk to him in those four days?

Patrick Clancy: Yeah.

Ross Douthat: Can you tell me anything you said?

Patrick Clancy: I said, “I’m so sorry.” And I got to– I got to hold him. I got to lay down next to him. And he died in my arms.

The second emotional moment was when Patrick admitted to confronting his own suicidal thoughts.

In the weeks after the tragedy, the crowds of mourners dispersed and Clancy’s world emptied out. There was no family routine, no bedtime stories, no purpose.

Patrick Clancy: Everything just came to a screeching halt. And then there was a day where I– really without thinking, I drove by their school. And it was at the exact time that all of their friends were getting dropped off. And I was just– I couldn’t be there anymore.

Ross Douthat: Did you ever have suicidal thoughts yourself?

Patrick Clancy: Yeah There was a time where I– I didn’t think I would live to see my 35th birthday. And I was completely fine with it.

In April, unable to stay in Duxbury, Clancy said he moved to New York City, seeking anonymity.

Patrick Clancy also said, in a moment that caught many people’s attention, that he forgave Lindsay – but Lindsay herself never asked for forgiveness.

Patrick Clancy: I saw headlines that said, you know, “Killer Mom,” and “Baby Murderer,” “Monster.” And none of ’em were accurate. I believe that it was her mental illness that caused that. So I shared those words. 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.

Ross Douthat: Did you ask Lindsay why she did it?

Patrick Clancy: I asked her if she remembered it.

Ross Douthat: And what did she say?

Patrick Clancy: She said it was like a dream. And– she remembered it much in the way you would remember a dream after waking up.

Ross Douthat: Do you feel like you failed in some way in this period or do you feel like you did the best you could?

Patrick Clancy: I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time. And I live with the outcome. I live with it every day.

Ross Douthat: Has she ever asked for your forgiveness?

Patrick Clancy: No. But I gave it to her.

Like Erika Kirk, Patrick Clancy faced a horrific loss that so few of us can comprehend, and realized that forgiveness was for his own mental health and well-being, and not because the other person asked for it.

This leads us to the fact that Patrick has had to move on with his life, something that the internet apparently can’t comprehend. Grief is complex and complicated, and things do not happen on a timetable. We no longer live in a society that dictates black clothing for grieving, and then “half-mourning” colors, for a determined period of time. Cora, Dawson, and Callan were murdered in January of 2023. We are quickly approaching the four year mark of their deaths. That Patrick Clancy has remarried and is expecting a baby with his wife seems to have gobsmacked people.

Rachel Danis, an infertility specialist who married Patrick Clancy earlier this year, made the announcement as she sat beside him for an interview with “60 Minutes” — his first since his former wife’s high-profile murder trial ended with a hung jury earlier this month.

“And you guys are starting a family,” journalist Ross Douthat asked the couple, and Danis confirmed.

Patrick Clancy said he was excited to share memories of his first children — 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan — with his future ones.

“I think every parent can agree, you have different relationships with your kids, but they’re all your kids. And I can’t wait to tell them about their brothers and sister,” he said during the interview.

Danis and Patrick Clancy tied the knot in April at an intimate ceremony at the Ladies Pavilion in New York City’s Central Park — where Danis revealed the couple first met.

“I was just a girl that met a guy running in Central Park on a really cold Saturday,” she said, shrugging off the criticisms they’ve received for their marriage from online trolls and unhinged influencers.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that,” she added.

Rachel Danis said that they met in January 2024, and they got married this last April. Again, there is no law or societal stricture regarding when you are “allowed” to remarry after death and divorce.

But the internet is so heavily invested in this case, that every single detail – from Douthat being the interviewer, to Patrick’s “micro expressions,” to ripping his new wife for even daring to marry him – is now under the microscope for the self-appointed social media sleuths to pick apart. And literally EVERYONE has Opinions™, and wishes to share them.

Instant thoughts after Patrick Clancy interview. pic.twitter.com/Jh1K9IKpPO

— Lynden Blake (@LyndenBlake) September 21, 2026

HOLY. CRAP. 🤯

This girl supported Lindsay Clancy and believed Patrick Clancy wasn’t a good guy. Then she watched his recent 60 Minutes interview and said she has flipped ENTIRELY. She said she feels so bad for Patrick now and that seeing how defeated he looked completely… pic.twitter.com/hvmUyxT8T0

— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) September 21, 2026

And I’m sure that there will be a hundred more videos analyzing and discussing and complaining about all the things Patrick Clancy did or did not say. And I truly hope his lawyers are taking notes and are ready to start suing people for slander.

In the end, three children were murdered, and their father had to learn to live with the grief, and attempt to move forward. Until this trial became, as Ross Douthat put it in the beginning of the interview segement, a “cultural Rorschach test,” Patrick Clancy was able to move forward in relative anonymity. He’s now been dragged up and down TikTok, and yet still has to live and grieve and move forward under scrutiny that he doesn’t deserve. Will this interview change minds? Maybe, but the fact that it will now be dissected within an inch of its media life is the more telling part. And it’s telling us all that we should put down the social media and get a hobby that doesn’t involve a screen, while we let Patrick Clancy live in peace.

Features image: Stopwatch via Flickr, cropped and modified, CC BY-NC 2.0