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Privacy NoticeJason Watkins, a familiar face from W1A, Being Human, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Nativity! and Coma is back on our screens on Sunday 21 July for the fourth series of Bath-set mystery drama McDonald & Dodds. Off-screen, Jason is a devoted father who tragically lost his two year old daughter to sepsis in 2011. He has two older sons, Freddie and Pip, with his first wife, actress Caroline Harding, who is best known for her roles in Coronation Street and Scott & Bailey. Caroline is now married to Coronation Street’s Chris Gascoyne, while Jason found love again with jewellery and fashion designer Clara Francis, whom he met when she was his dresser at the Young Vic theatre where he was performing in Timon of Athens. The couple, who got hitched in 2014, have three children together – daughters Bessie and Maude, and son Gilbert. In 2011, they shared the heartbreaking news that their two year old daughter Maude had passed away from sepsis, reports the Mirror.
Jason Watkins has spoken openly about the death of his daughter Maude
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Speaking about his wife to the Guardian earlier this year, Jason said: “She was an incredibly attractive woman when I met her, but she is more so now because she has flourished into this incredible person, in many ways, because of our loss. Clara has an inner light that she is able to bring out in other people. She’s the best friend you’ve ever had.” Over the years, they’ve openly discussed their grief and even made an ITV documentary, Jason and Clara: In Memory of Maudie, in 2023. On New Year’s Day 2011, Jason found his little girl lifeless in her bed. This followed two hospital visits where her flu symptoms had concealed the deadly sepsis, often referred to as the ‘silent killer’, leading to it being undiagnosed. Severe breathlessness and high temperature, symptoms of the condition, caused Maude’s immune system to overreact to an infection and attack her organs. “This is where Maude was born. I had her at home, and it is also where she died. Even after 11 years, it is still shocking,” Clara shared on the documentary, as she prepared to move house. Discussing the taboo of child loss, she added: “It’s so grim and unspeakable, people don’t know what to say. People don’t know how to act around you, but, also, I want to talk about Maudie and people will know that she’s here.”
Jason and Clara raise awareness of sepsis in honour of their little girl Maudie
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Jason and Clara found it incredibly difficult to tell their daughter Bessie that her sister had tragically passed away. They revealed that the “shocking thing” was that she was in their home at the time. “You can use euphemisms of heaven and those sorts of things,” Jason said, before adding: “You have to say that she’s not coming back, that’s the difficult part.” Reflecting on Maude’s death in 2020, Jason told Britain Get Talking podcast: “There are days when you just don’t want to have to think about it too much. Then of course there are days when there is nothing you can do about it but it just consumes you. It’ll just hit you like a train. It could be anything. It’s cliched but you can hear or a song or see a child’s face and it all comes back.” Since her passing, Jason has been a proud patron of Child Bereavement UK and also dedicated his 2015 BAFTA to Maudie. Parents Jason and Clara have carried out work to raise more awareness of sepsis.Story SavedYou can find this story in  My Bookmarks.Or by navigating to the user icon in the top right.Follow OK! MagazineFacebookTwitterCommentMore OnChris GascoyneCoronation StreetJason Watkins
