Rob Delaney's Heart-Wrenching Wish: "I Want to Die in the Same Room as My Son"
US actor and comedian Rob Delaney revealed on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs that he wishes to buy the home where his two-year-old son Henry died, so he can also spend his final moments there. Henry passed away in 2018 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Delaney recalled asking the landlord: "Listen, if you ever go to sell this place, let me know first because I would like to buy it. So when I'm 81 I can crawl in here and die. In the same room that my son died in, that my other son was born in."
Before Henry's death, Delaney and his wife Leah told him they were expecting another child. The "Catastrophe" and "Deadpool 2" star said, "He had to know that this family that loved him was alive and was growing and that there was somebody that we were going to tell about him. We knew that they would not overlap corporally on this Earth, even though Henry's younger brother was born in the same room that Henry died in, our living room."
Delaney, 47, shared that he and his family stayed in London because of the memories of Henry. "For so many reasons, we've stayed, one of which is I like to go put my hands on slides at the playground that Henry slid down." He also mentioned that he occasionally bumps into the nurses who cared for Henry, and praised London and the NHS for the "truly unbelievable" care they provided.
Delaney had feared he would struggle with the birth of his new son, feeling that his heart had "been torn into pieces and dissolved in salt." However, he described a profound connection the moment his new son was born, saying, "The nanosecond he exited my wife's body, I looked at him and just, you know, started weeping and was so in love with him... I love him desperately. And then you have to feel and honour your pain. You have to let it hurt and you can't run away from it. When the feelings come it's best to let them."
Delaney also discussed his recovery from alcoholism, sharing that he has been sober for more than two decades after a car crash prompted him to stop drinking. He described his experience with alcoholism as "nothing more interesting than garden variety alcoholism," explaining that drinking made him feel "better, complete, happier, relaxed." Despite having alcoholism on both sides of his family, Delaney has managed to maintain his sobriety.