Actor Emmett Scanlan, best known as Brendan Brady in Hollyoaks and Jimmy Kingston in crime drama Kin, has spoken movingly about his wife losing their baby in a miscarriage.
“I just assumed that you get pregnant, you wait nine months, the baby comes, then you have a family,” the actor told a podcast.
“My wife, Claire was pregnant, and we were over the moon,” said Emmett. “It was exactly what we wanted.
“I always knew Claire would be a great mother. She is so patient and loving towards my daughter, and she is patient and loving and protective towards our cats. That might sound a little bit weird, but you can really tell a person by how loving and protective they are over people and animals, who don’t have a voice. So, I knew she was going to be a great mother.
“But, from the very beginning there were complications. About three months [later] and I’m lying in bed, and I wake up and Claire’s not beside me, and I hear noises from the from the bathroom,” he told the Original Penguin and Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) Under the Surface podcast.
“I go into the bathroom and she’s lying on the floor. She’s ashen in colour and she’s barely breathing, and there’s blood everywhere. I call the ambulance and she went to hospital. She lost a third of her blood and almost lost her life. And we lost the little heartbeat, that was Phoenix, our son.”
Poignantly, Emmet said that was the first time he said Phoenix’s name out loud.
“There was a sense of shame and embarrassment that came with it [miscarriage]. I talked to Claire about this before I came on the podcast, and she told me that she felt shame over her body letting her down.
“I didn’t know that. And I felt shame over me almost losing her.
“And what amazed me was how many people go through this, how many people suffer silently.
“You know, talking about it is so important. Me talking about it right now is the first time I have verbalized this.”
* The Miscarriage Association offers support to people who have lost a baby. Helpline: 01924 200 799. Email: info@miscarriageassociation.org.uk.
