Ray Quinn and wife Emily explain how they broke the news of their baby son’s stillbirth to their kids and their heartbreaking reactions

DAILYMAIL.COM • 10h ago

By JOANNA CRAWLEY, DEPUTY SHOWBIZ EDITOR (NEWS) 10:09 12 Oct 2026, updated 10:18 12 Oct 2026

Ray Quinn and his wife Emily have explained how they told their children the heartbreaking news of their baby son’s stillbirth.

The X Factor star, 38, took to Instagram on Sunday night as he explained his wife Emily gave birth to their stillborn son Rio in August.

The couple found out during a six-month scan that their ‘beautiful boy’ had no heartbeat. They later found out that his umbilical cord was tied in a tight knot and ‘there wasn’t anything we could have ever done to change it’.

Ray and Emily have a blended family, already sharing daughter Summer Reign, four whilst Ray has son Harry, 14, with ex-wife Emma Stephens, and Emily has Lucian, 13, from a past relationship.

Speaking on their podcast The Quinns, Emily explained how they told their children about Rio, adding that their daughter Summer’s reaction has helped them with their grief.

‘I’m a big believer in just tell your children the truth,’ Emily explained. ‘Children are so intelligent and they can feel things.’

‘If you don’t tell them the truth and what is actually happening, I feel like it is more harm than good. So we told them.’

‘We showed them pictures of Rio and said, “This is your little brother, but he’s not going to come home with us. He’s up in the sky. So whenever we look in the clouds and we see the sunshinw, he’s going to be there. Whenever the stars shine, the brightest star at night, that’s Rio”.

Emily and Ray thanked the Honeysuckle Bereavement Service in Liverpool for their advice on how to share the news, explaining that they were given books to help their children understand.

They also got all their children a little wool love heart, placing one with Rio and giving the three older children their own to help them ‘feel connected’ to their brother.

Emily said that their daughter Summer has helped her with her own grief, explaining how ‘Summer took the approach of “I love my baby Rio and and when we go to sleep at night, she says “mommy he is going to be around us” and she talks about him.’

‘When we see babies in the park, something that we would be upset about and try to avoid, she would point it out and say, “Look, mommy, there’s a baby. There’s a baby. There’s a baby in the pram”. Like baby Rio. And it’s I think it helped us a little bit. Summer being the way she was and just speaking about it so freely.’

Ray agreed, adding that ‘Summer says what we’re thinking’.

On their podcast, the couple explained everything was fine at their 20 weeks scan, however at six months pregnant Emily, who also experienced a miscarriage last year, noticed she wasn’t feeling as much movement and felt her bump looked smaller.

Emily had an anterior placenta so was told she would feel less movement, but realising something was wrong the couple booked a scan where it was revealed the baby had no heartbeat.

‘Our whole world just stopped in that moment,’ said Emily as she broke down in tears.

Sharing a black and white snap of the three of them to Instagram on Sunday, Ray wrote: ‘Our beautiful boy, born Sleeping.. 20th August 2026.

‘No words will ever be enough, just a lot of indescribable feelings. Heaven gained the most beautiful little Angel and we were overjoyed when Rio was born and we found out we had a little boy!!

‘The last few weeks have been a lot but our saving grace has been each other.’

Ray added on the podcast: ‘It was life changing you know absolutely life-changing, devastating really. As soon as she said that, yeah, your world does come to a stop and you don’t worry about all the other things that you’ve been worried about.

‘It’s like life hits you right in the face and that changed everything.’

After finding out his umbilical cord was tied in a knot, Emily added: ‘There wasn’t anything wrong with him or me or any complications like that.’

‘And it’s very very very very rare,’ added Ray, ‘It’s not something that would have been flagged up at all on any scans. It’s not something that the professionals would look for.’

Emily added: ‘It’s now amazing that the support out there for women, couples going through this situation. Because 35 years ago, this type of support for women and men and families was not there.

‘People didn’t quite know how to approach it. Everything was sort of hush, like don’t speak about that. But now we’re encouraged to speak about it. And why wouldn’t we celebrate our baby’s life because he was here just as if any other child being born is here.

‘So speak about it and tell people and that’s the way that you’ll heal.’

The couple’s friends were quick to send their condolences in the comments.

Kym Marsh penned: ‘Oh Ray I’m so sorry I know this pain only too well. Sending so much love xx’ and Jess Wright wrote: ‘Sending so so much love.’

Others added: ‘Oh my goodness. So so sorry and sending so much love to you both’; ‘Thinking of you all through these hard times❤️sending all my love xx’;

‘Thinking of you all and sending so much love to you and little Rio’; ‘Oh mate. I’m so sorry for your loss. That is sooo tough. Sending love to you all.’

Thanking the hospital for their support, Ray wrote: ‘We just want to say a special thanks to Becky, Rebecca, Ali, Marie, Sarah & Lorraine @liverpoolwomens and to the HoneySuckle team you go above and beyond, and although it was the most heartbreaking week of our lives you created some of the most beautiful moments and we have such special memories with our boy to keep forever. Thank you!

‘When it’s you that goes through such heartbreaking times like this, You soon find out just how much help and support there is out there.

‘It’s a whole lot more than you’d ever expect. And it’s truly amazing!’

Ray shared that the couple decided to dedicate an episode on their YouTube channel to the tragedy to help raise awareness.

He added: ‘We talk more about this on our YouTube “THE QUINNS” This episode was hard to film and was not a decision we took lightly and honestly something we never thought we would be talking about, but it’s real life and by us opening up and talking about this, we hope it helps those out there who find themselves in a similar situation to us.

If you have been affected by this story, you can call Child Bereavement UK on 0800 028 8840 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, or email helpline@childbereavementuk.org

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