Eric Clapton, 79, once suffered an unimaginable tragedy when his 4-year-old son Conor died in a freak accident in 1991 after falling from a 53rd-floor apartment window in New York.
Just days before the accident, Clapton had spent a joyful day with his son and was planning more outings, including a trip to the Bronx Zoo. Conor’s death devastated him and ended his relationship with the child’s mother, Lory Del Santo.
After the tragedy, Clapton withdrew from public life, isolating himself for nearly a year in Antigua where he coped through music and writing.
He later turned his grief into the iconic song “Tears in Heaven,” and was also devastated when a letter Conor had written to him—arriving only after the funeral—reached him in London.
The loss deeply changed Clapton’s life, and he has often spoken about the long road of grief and healing that followed.