![Inside Eric Clapton's Tragedy]( "Inside Eric Clapton's Tragedy")
Inside Eric Clapton's Tragedy
Death is always tragic, but when a child is involved, it can often be unbearable. Such was the case in 1991 when legendary musician ERIC CLAPTON lost his 4-year-old son CONOR after he fell from the window of a high-rise apartment in New York City.
Tonight on "The Insider," LORY DEL SANTO, the singer's ex-girlfriend and mother to their child Conor, speaks openly to renowned international interviewer DAPHNE BARAK about the day she and Clapton will never forget.
"I couldn't really cope with it for a long time," the Italian-born Del Santo tells Barak. "It was a big thing, and also for him [Clapton], because it was a time when he was discovering how this baby was important to him."
Del Santo says Clapton, more than ever, was spending time with Conor just prior to his son's death, taking him to places like the circus.
Sure enough, Clapton was on his way over to the apartment where Del Santo and Conor were staying at to take him to the zoo when tragedy struck.
According to Del Santo, a maid had inadvertently left a broken window open and "then suddenly the baby ran after sitting for awhile, and he went into this room, and in one second, he was finished. So I didn't actually have time to see it."
When Clapton arrived and heard the horrifying news, "he just sat down, very quietly, and he was looking out the window," recalls Del Santo. "He didn't say much and I couldn't stop crying."
The loss was made all the more emotional by way of a letter Conor had written to his father just days before.
"In New York, he was learning how to write and he said, 'Mommy, I want to write a letter to Daddy. What should I write?' I said, 'Well, write I love you, Daddy.'"
Conor did just that and Del Santo mailed it to Clapton's home in London. But Clapton didn't receive it until after his son's funeral.
"That moment I cannot forget ever," says Del Santo solemnly.
And it was clearly a moment that Clapton himself took to heart, expressing his feelings the best way he knows how -- through song -- writing the poignant "Tears in Heaven" in loving memory of Conor.
For more of Daphne Barak's emotional interview with Lory Del Santo, watch tonight's "Insider," or go to Barak's website at www.daphnebarak.com.
Barak is an acclaimed international interviewer who has scored interviews with the likes of MOTHER TERESA and HILLARY CLINTON. She is syndicated worldwide to the most prominent outlets in Europe, America, Australia, the Arab world, Turkey, Pakistan and the Far East.
http://insider.tv.yahoo.com/celeb/4358/
