Rob Delaney has written and released a book sharing the story of his son Henry’s life and death.
Patrick Kielty fought back tears during an emotional interview with American actor and comedian Rob Delaney in which the latter detailed the death of his son Henry five years ago.
During The Late Late Show conversation, Kielty praised his guest for his best-selling book A Heart That Works – calling it “beautiful” and “touching”.
Speaking about the memoir, Delaney – who co-created and starred in the comedy series Catastrophe alongside Sharon Horgan – explained:
“For those who don’t know, my son Henry died five years ago of a brain tumour a little bit before he turned three.
“The book is about Henry’s life and his death and what our family has been like since.
“I have three other boys – a 12-year-old, a ten-year-old and a now five-year-old with whom my wife was pregnant when Henry died.
“So yeah, this book is about our family. Henry is of course the star of the book but I wanted to talk about him. I wanted more people to know about him.”
In terms of writing the book, Delaney said that he did it for other families and that he thought “there might be a place for a book that was very angry and gave an unvarnished picture of parental grief”.
“It started that way. It started very angry. Then really what took over was love. So, a lot of anger in the book but a lot of love too.”
“There might be a day that you will be able to celebrate a birthday again”@robdelaney @PatricKielty #LateLate pic.twitter.com/1CVxyjwUGP
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) September 29, 2023
Patrick Kielty becomes emotional during interview with Rob Delaney about his late son
During the interview, Kielty highlighted how Henry died on Delaney’s birthday – before stating: “Just so you know, my dad was killed on my brother’s birthday. I know how hard that it is.”
“But one of the things that you said which I thought was brilliant was that you were glad it was your birthday because…”
At this point, Delaney explained: “Yes, because Henry’s brother, right above him, his birthday is five days after mine.
“So, we could see that Henry was dying. We thought: ‘Oh, God.’ I don’t think we said it out loud but I remember thinking” ‘Please don’t let him die on his brother’s birthday’.
“So, among all the other terrible feelings, there was a tiniest bit of relief that merely my birthday was totally destroyed forever rather than a kid who was turning five. That would have been awful.
“Because I hate birthdays now… Adults with birthdays, I don’t want to hear about it. Children’s I can do bit. Adults, I’m like: ‘Save it.'”
The American comedian also told the show that five years on, he still cries when he thinks about Henry.
At one point during the interview, Kielty became emotional as he told Delaney:
“It’s a beautiful book. It’s been a long time since I lost my dad and I know it’s not long since you lost Henry. I just want to say to you that there might be a day that you will be able to celebrate a birthday again.”
You can watch Patrick Kielty and Rob Delaney discuss A Heart That Works right here:
This article originally appeared on Joe.ie
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