David Duchovny admitted he had trouble "reattaching" to his daughter when she was a baby after a "nightmare" health scare almost took her life.
The "X Files" actor, 63, recounted the harrowing experience during an appearance on Wednesday's episode of "Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa." He opened up about his relationship with his daughter West, now 25, whom he shares with ex Téa Leoni, 58, according to People. The former couple also share Kyd, 21.
"When my daughter West was 9 months old, she got RSV, which kind of was in the news again a couple years ago," the actor said of the respiratory virus.
"I'd never heard of it until my daughter got it, and it's very dangerous for infants, and she went into the hospital and she had, nobody knew what it was. They thought maybe she had meningitis. She was nonresponsive," he continued.
"They gave her a spinal tap. It was really horrifying and this was her first cold, if you can remember as a parent, that first cold," he added.
Commenting on the ordeal, Ripa said it sounded like a "nightmare." Duchovny agreed.
"But this was truly a nightmare because we really thought we could lose her, and I was working on 'The X-Files' at the time and Téa was staying in the hospital with West, and I would go and visit after work for a few hours, and then I'd go home and I remember being in the shower and just thinking, I started to try to acclimate myself to a world without her," he said.
"This is a real possibility. I've got to think about it, and I realized I would never get over it. Not that I couldn't live, but just that life would, as it says in the book, it would have no meaning or joy," he shared.
"I would go on, but I'd be a shell of something, and West was fine. She was fine, and I realized as a father, I had troubles shortly after that. I don't know if the word is reattaching, but accepting her back in. I was so terrified."
Duchovny and Leoni have maintained a friendly relationship following their divorce a decade ago but it was not always easy, as Leoni shared back in a 2015 interview.
"I spent some time in my marriage being fearful of how it would go, or end, or not end," she admitted, according to ABC News.
"Thankfully, I’ve moved past all that," she told the magazine. "Chasing youth is a war I’m not going to win. It’s not like I’m thrilled to turn around and catch my can in the mirror, but I can see now how much of my happiness could be a victim of trying to stay young and desirable. And it feels like peace and victory to be relieved of that burden."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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