Many know that Eric Clapton, 79, suffered a devastating loss when his four-year-old son, Conor, died in a tragic accident. Few, however, know about the heartbreaking promise he made to his boy.
On March 20, 1991, Conor fell from a 53rd-floor apartment window in Manhattan while with his mother, Italian actress Lory Del Santo. A housekeeper had just finished cleaning when Conor ran past an unlatched window and fell. “If I hadn’t checked the fax, he’d still be alive,” Lory later said.
Just a day earlier, Clapton had spent a joyful afternoon with Conor at the circus — their first full day together. Excited to be a father, Clapton promised to take him to the Bronx Zoo the next day. Tragically, that day never came.
Shattered by grief, Clapton brought Conor’s body home to Ripley, England, for burial, then retreated to a small cottage in Antigua for nearly a year, seeking solace in music. “All I could do was play and write these songs until I felt like I could surface again,” he said.
From his pain came one of his most emotional works, Tears in Heaven, written to honor Conor’s memory. Adding to the heartbreak, Clapton later received a letter from his son — the first he’d ever written — which arrived after the funeral. It simply read, “I love you.”