Comedian Rob Delaney says he wants to die in same room as his son | Ents & Arts News
Comedian and actor Rob Delaney has said he wants to buy the house that his son died in so he can spend his last moments in the same room.
In 2018, the US star shared that his son Henry had died aged two after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.
Five months later, the 47-year-old and his wife Leah announced they were expecting another child – their fourth son.
In an interview for BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Delaney – best known for writing and starring in British sitcom Catastrophe – revealed that Henry died in the same living room that their last son was born in.
“We don’t live there anymore but when we moved out, I asked the landlord, I said, ‘Listen, if you ever go to sell this place, let me know first because I would like to buy it’,” the comedian said.
“So that 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.”
Rob Delaney with Catastrophe co-star Sharon Horgan in 2018. Pic: AP
Henry was also the first to know that the couple were going to have another baby.
Explaining why it was important to them to tell their late son, the actor added: “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.
“I don’t know that there’d be another little nugget in the house that he could vibe with from whatever area in the cosmos he was, but he needed to know.”
At the time of his death, Delaney described Henry as “smart, funny and mischievous”. He also praised the NHS for supporting his family throughout the ordeal.
Born in Boston in the US, Delaney said his family has considered leaving London, but have stayed because of Henry’s memories.
“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 said.
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“I like to see nurses periodically bump into him [sic] that took care of him so London is very important to me and London took very good care of him, the NHS at large, the friends that we made, even our little boys friends who took care of them.
“So London has helped us and taken care of us in many ways.”
The comic, who was one of the first to develop a fanbase through social media site X, has also had more than two decades of sobriety following a car crash that prompted him to give up drinking.
Revealing that he first got drunk at the age of 12, he said drinking initially made him feel “better, complete, happier and relaxed”.
“It’s nothing more interesting than garden variety alcoholism,” he said, adding: “It could be as simple as you know, I had alcoholism on both sides of my family. And so then I got it too and… it doesn’t really care where you come from.”
