Written by Deirdre Durkan-simonds Dailymail.com
May 8, 2024 16:02, Updated May 8, 2024 16:25
The X-Files’ David Duchovny reflected on nearly losing his then-infant daughter West, now 25, during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Let’s Talk Off Camera” with Kelly Ripa.
More than 20 years after his eldest son contracted the respiratory virus RSV, the 63-year-old actor has opened up about the shocking experience.
“When my daughter West was nine months old, she contracted RSV,” he began. “I had never heard of the disease until her daughter got infected. It’s very dangerous for young children and my daughter went to the hospital… but no one knew what it was. I did not know.”
He continued, “They thought she might have meningitis. She was unresponsive. They gave her a spinal tap. It was really scary and as a parent If you remember, this was her first cold.”
RSV stands for respiratory syncytial virus, which infects the lungs and respiratory tract.
According to the CDC, “infants and older adults are more likely to develop severe RSV and require hospitalization.”
Duchovny went on to reveal that West’s RSV fight was “an absolute nightmare.” Because he really thought he might lose her.
At the time, he was juggling being a father for the first time and starring as FBI agent Fox Mulder in the hit series The X-Files.
He credited his then-wife Tea Leoni, whom he split with in 2014, for “staying with West in the hospital” on set.
“I visited for a few hours after work and then went home,” he explained.
Duchovny admitted that while taking a shower, he thought about trying to “acclimate” himself to a “world without” the West.
“This is a real possibility. I have to think about it, but I realize I’ll never recover. It’s not that I can’t survive, but as it’s written in the book, There would be no meaning or joy in life,” he told listeners. “I’m going to keep going, but I’m going to be a shell of something, and West was fine.”
He said his daughter made a good recovery, but “problems arose shortly thereafter.”
“I don’t know if those words will connect again, but it means accepting her again. It was very scary,” he confessed.
Ripa said she realized how difficult it is to be afraid of becoming “too attached,” perhaps after losing a child.
“That makes sense,” the talk show host, 53, replied.
He said the experience inspired him to write, direct and star in the 2023 film “Bucky Fuck Dent.”
“The real heart of this story is not the father, it’s me as the father, it’s not the mother, it’s not me as the son. But I think it’s actually about me and my daughter,” Duchovny said. concluded. Hot topic.
During the interview, Duchovny also spoke about the end of his 17-year marriage to West’s mother.
“Mark and I were sad when you and Thea divorced,” Ripa told him. “It made me feel sad, as if I had personally invested something in it, which is so ridiculous.”
“Yes, I’m happy to say it, but I’m proud of the way I raised my children after that. And we got along very well in the city, and I was a child of divorce myself, so I think that “It was something I never wanted to do, but of course I did it, we did it, and then we just did the best we could,” he replied.
Duchovny added that he had no “regrets” but understood it must have been painful for his two children, West and Kido, 21.
West followed his parents into show business and began acting in 2018 when he landed a role on The X-Files alongside his father.
She has since appeared in the Netflix series “Painkiller,” Hulu’s “Saint X,” and the film “A Mouthful of Air.”