Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and his wife Tana both recently opened up about the loss of their infant son Rocky at 20 weeks. Rocky was born prematurely seven years ago, and the couple, along with their living children, are still understandably heartbroken over the loss.
In June, Tana shared a touching post on Instagram marking seven years since Rocky’s death. Captioning images of the family celebrating daughter Megan’s 18th birthday, Tana wrote, “Little did we know, a few days later I would be holding our little boy Rocky — born with a strong heartbeat, but too little to survive. Although it’s 7 years today, it still feels like yesterday. We all miss you everyday. We love you Rocky, forever in our hearts.”
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Last week, Gordon discussed Rocky’s death, describing it as a “really tough” time that brought his family “closer together.” Gordon and Tana also share daughters Megan, 24, Holly, 23, Tilly, 21, and sons Jack, 23, and Oscar, age 4.
In an interview with People, Gordon said, “Losing Rocky was really tough, and then just being there and watching the trauma unfold, it’s just this life-changing moment. A: I was grateful that we were there together. B: Tana always struggled with her bloods and so there was always issues with getting bloods absolutely right. So there was this incredible celebration that she was pregnant and everything was going fine. And all of a sudden it just changes within 24 hours. So, I think if anything it brought the whole family together, closer; Jack’s still got the little dog tag with Rocky. And we’ve got these incredible bits of jewelry together that we connect through.”
The family also named their home in Cornwall for Rocky, calling it Rocky Bay House. Gordon added that “it’s hard because we would never have Oscar if we hadn’t had Rocky, and so there was no substitute, far from it, but it brought us a bond that you’d never experience in a normal situation.”
While the family received “unbelievable” support from friends including Jamie and Jools Oliver (parents of five children) and David and Victoria Beckham (parents of four children), many Instagram commenters were cruel in their responses to Gordon’s love for his son and heartbreak at his tragic death.
“Jamie and Jools were among the first to reach out and send their sympathy… Victoria and David have been amazing. They came to see Tana and me immediately…” said Gordon. “We were devastated, but thankfully we’re through the worst now. It could happen at any time to anyone.”
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After the Daily Mail posted the story to Instagram last week, support for the Ramsay family seemed to be the last thing on a lot of people’s minds. The comments included cruel and discriminatory remarks.
“As sad and tragic as this is, which is very much is. He didn’t lose a child[,] he lost a fetus,” wrote janate66, “it’s not he same. It was not viable on its own. Still sad, but different. People can move on from losing a fetus as tough as it is, no one (except for psychopaths) get over losing a child.” She added in a separate comment, “Yes people who have lost a fetus can move on, but not those who have lost a child.”
Mindlesswitterings commented, “The fetus wasn’t viable with life, therefore it cannot die.”
Likewise, simulation_workwear wrote, “‘Rocky’ was a fetus who wasn’t alive and couldn’t die.”
Commenter flat_earth_mom wrote, “A Foetus is not a child.”
And elsinore71 wrote, “Lost a fetus so sorry.”
Johnnydub1974 simply stated, “In USA it’s not a baby until it exists [sic] the birth giver.”
And codymayshare cruelly told the family to get over it, writing, “You can honor the children that would have been but this is too much. 7 years ago? You had Oscar since then.”
While some commenters fired back at the insensitive Instagram users, it’s clear that there is a widespread lack of knowledge concerning miscarriage, premature delivery, infant loss, and life inside the womb.
Legalized abortion has only helped to dehumanize preborn children and newborns, causing society to largely portray their deaths — either by induced abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth, or premature birth — as no big deal.
A preborn child is a human being at every stage of life in the womb from the moment of fertilization, the same as everyone is a human being at every stage of life outside the womb. By 20 weeks, the preborn child can hear and respond to sounds, is beginning to open her eyes, and is sensitive to touch. Babies are capable of surviving a premature birth as early as 21 weeks. They are very much alive with hearts that have been beating and pumping blood since three weeks post-fertilization.
Yet, abortion advocates continue to dehumanize these vulnerable and innocent humans in order to keep abortion legal.
