Jason Watkins opened up about the devastating death of his daughter in 2023’s ITV documentary Jason & Clara: In Memory of Maudie.
The popular TV actor tragically lost his daughter to sepsis in 2011.
The one-off documentary relived the “grim and unspeakable” tragedy in a moving tribute to the little girl, who was only 2 when she died.
In gut-wrenching interviews, McDonald & Dodds star Jason Watkins and his wife Clara Francis told the story of their daughter.
Tragically, her older sister found her dead in bed on New Year’s Day.
Jason & Clara: In Memory of Maudie on ITV
Actor Jason Watkins and his fashion designer wife Clara Francis told the devastating story of their late daughter Maudie.
She died suddenly when she was just two and a half in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2011.
Tragically she died of an illness that she could have recovered from, with the right intervention.
Maudie died of undiagnosed sepsis, a condition where the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection.
Sepsis causes the immune system to go into overdrive and attack the body’s tissues and organs.
Since the tragedy, Jason Watkins and Clara have been seeking to raise awareness of sepsis.
They also hope to help and give hope to other bereaved parents.
At the time of the documentary, the family were about to move from the flat where Maudie was born and died, and they felt the time was right to tell their story.
Jason Watkins explained: “Sharing Maud’s story and what happened will offer hope for families who’ve lost children.”
Jason Watkins’ daughter Bessie tragically found Maud
The story is made more heartbreaking as a result of the fact that it was Maude’s older sister Bessie who found her two-year-old sister dead in bed on New Year’s Day.
Jason – who has a tattoo of Maude’s name on his arm – previously relived the moment, describing how Bessie told her parents: “I can’t wake up Maude.”
Bessie and Maude shared a bedroom in the Watkins family home.
On January 01, 2011, Bessie tried to wake her sister.
Speaking to The Times in 2017, Line of Duty actor Jason said: “On New Year’s morning, Bessie came in a bit subdued and started to play on our bed.
“After a bit, she said: ‘I can’t wake up Maud’.
“I remember feeling a sort of dread.
“When I walked into their room, I could see she had died.”
Bessie was just a couple of years older than Maude when her sister died.
Jason and Clara went on to have a son called Gilbert.
Was Maude’s death preventable?
Jason Watkins has sadly confirmed the bitterest pill to swallow of all – Maude’s death was preventable.
During the Christmas festivities of 2010, Maude became ill.
She displayed symptoms of what her parents thought was flu – a high temperature, and persistent cough.
When Jason and Clara took their youngest daughter to A&E, she was prescribed antibiotics and sent home.
However, on New Year’s Eve, her symptoms were still frightening so they took her back to hospital.
Doctors told the worried parents that Maude had croup.
Treatment relieved Maude of the symptoms, and her temperature fell, so she was discharged.
She died in the night.
At the inquest into Maude’s death, it was discovered that she had died of sepsis, often described as the ‘silent killer’.
Discussing Maude’s death with Giovanna Fletcher on her Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast, Clara said: “I’ve always felt with Maude, she was just unlucky.
“You know, another child may have gone to A&E and they’ve had a consultant there who has gone ‘I think this could be sepsis’ and their child is alive.”
She added: “I think it’s important to say, some parents are listened to.
“I do believe it to be luck. That makes it so much more painful to me because this is a death that could have been avoided.
“To know that your child could potentially be a 14-year-old girl going out having a really fabulous life when it didn’t happen for her is particularly difficult.
“Why didn’t I scream at shout at the hospital and demand they keep her there?
“I failed at the thing I was supposed to be doing, I was supposed to keep her alive.”
Is Jason Watkins’ daughter Bessie in the ITV documentary?
Jason and Clara’s oldest daughter Bessie chose not to take part in the ITV documentary Jason & Clara: In Memory of Maudie.
Bessie, who is now a teenager, did initially agree to appear but later changed her mind.
Jason explains: “She did a really moving interview, but then she watched it and she felt very exposed.
“In the end it was just too difficult for her.”
Read more: Good Morning Britain: Viewers shocked as Jason Watkins is cut off while discussing child bereavement
Jason’s back in McDonald & Dodds tonight (July 21) at 9pm on ITV1.
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