Natascha McElhone has behaved with so much dignity and grace in the wake of her husband’s death last year. Since becoming a widow while pregnant with her third child, she has only made a few public appearances, and done few interviews. She seems to want to start speaking out though, because she agreed to an intense interview with Britain’s Hello! Magazine (story via The Daily Mail).

Natascha says that when her third son was born, after her husband’s death, she felt very strongly about being in the delivery room by herself – because she was going to be parenting alone, and her late husband couldn’t be replaced. She also opens up about the day she was told her husband had died – it was through a friend’s phone call, and Natascha says “I did that thing I thought people only did in movies – I dropped the phone and my knees sort of buckled under me.”

Actress Natascha McElhone has spoken movingly about the death of her celebrity surgeon husband as she showed off their baby son to the world.

The 37-year-old released pictures of baby Rex, whom she’d been carrying for just four months when Martin Kelly, 43, died suddenly. In a touching interview, she spoke of the devastating loss and how she is coping with bringing up Rex – now seven months old – and their two other children, Theo, 8, and Otis, 5.

She also revealed why she chose to be alone at the birth of her third child.

‘It just felt right somehow,’ the Californication actress told Hello! magazine. ‘If Martin couldn’t be there, I couldn’t replace him with someone, as that would have felt very strange. I wanted to be on my own because that was the way it was going to be. I was going to be my baby’s only parent so I may as well get used to it.’

She said her first thoughts after the ‘painful and challenging’ birth were ‘Phew, we made it! before the ‘tremendous joy’ kicked in.

Rex was born in the evening and the next morning Miss McElhone sent a text to the babysitter, asking her to bring her boys to the hospital.

Cranio-facial surgeon Mr Kelly was credited with helping children across the globe suffering from facial disfigurements through the Facing The World charity. He had been preparing to fly to America to meet his wife, who was also looking after their two boys.

His death came just four days after the pair’s tenth wedding anniversary and he was about to fly over to see her and celebrate it before her 20-week scan.

Miss McElhone also explains in poignant terms the moment she found out that her husband had died.

Miss McElhone told Hello!: ‘I did that thing I thought people only did in movies – I dropped the phone and my knees sort of buckled under me.’

She added: ‘The only other people who were going to be affected as deeply as me were the children – apart from Martin’s mother, of course – so they were the first people I told, although I don’t think it’s fair for me to talk about their reaction. That’s so much their experience.’

Her husband’s mother went with her to the scan where she discovered she was having a boy. Miss McElhone said she had decided she wanted to the know the sex of the child because she wanted some ‘knowns’ amongst the ‘devastation’.

Their son Rex was born on October 16 last year, at London’s Chelsea and Westminster Hospital – where Mr Kelly had carried out much of his work. Miss McElhone said the newborn ‘dear little head’ is constantly going from ‘side to side’ like he is at a tennis match as he watches his brothers play.

She named the boy Rex Coltrane Kelly as her husband’s hero was jazz musician John Coltrane. He was almost called Coltrane Kelly, she admitted.

The actress said of the two elder sons: ‘They just adore their little brother and are for ever smothering him in kisses, but then that’s how we’ve always communicated – with hugs and kisses.’

She said : ‘I thank God I had two babies with Martin before so I know exactly what his reaction to Rex would be. So I imagine him kissing the back of Rex’s neck and doing all the things he loved doing with the others.’

‘I say to the boys, “Daddy used to do this with you guys.” They’ll say, “Let’s do it to Rexy!” and we all pile in and give him hugs.’

‘I walked in the park this morning thinking of Martin, as I always do, and wondering: the one thing I miss terribly about him is that he had the answers to everything. I guess what I want to know now is what would his answer be to this – to our loss, to life without him. But I’ll never know.”

From The Daily Mail

Even though Natascha seems to still be grieving, she also seems to have a very positive, healthy attitude about raising her children. Ordinarily, I would feel strongly about the media letting Natascha and her family have their peace, but she was the one to organize this exclusive interview with Hello!, and she also gave them pictures of her sons. This might be for one of two reasons: she needs the money, and Hello! paid her; or, she is simply ready to begin to move on, and wants to talk about all of this tragedy in one sitting so that when she goes out to promote a project, she doesn’t get the same questions a million times from a million different journalists. Or both.

Natascha McElhone is shown at the BAFTA Awards on 2/10/08. Credit: PRPhotos