Ray Quinn and his wife Emily have spoken publicly about the devastating stillbirth of their baby boy, Rio, during an appearance on Monday's Good Morning Britain. The couple, who also have a young daughter named Summer, shared their grief with hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls, hoping to raise awareness for others experiencing similar loss.
Couple's Heartbreaking Loss
The X Factor runner-up and Dancing on Ice winner, who rose to fame as Anthony Murray on Brookside, explained that they had been preparing for their baby boy's arrival in December. However, they learned that his heart had stopped six months into the pregnancy, and Emily gave birth to Rio, who was born sleeping, in August.
Emily shared: "It's hard and I feel like through our grief we would like to spread awareness and help people. Obviously we're still grieving now and that will be a very long time, but we've got to roll with it and our way of dealing with it is to raise awareness and help as many people as we can."
Raising Awareness and Finding Support
Ray continued: "It's a process. It's still very raw." Following their public disclosure on their podcast and social media, Ray disclosed he had received numerous messages from other fathers who had expressed appreciation for sharing his experience, having endured the same ordeal.
The couple explained how they wished to honour their baby boy's life, with Ray stating: "We didn't find out what we were having, we didn't with Summer either, our daughter. We didn't know what we were having until the day came. It came a lot earlier than we'd planned. It's still very raw but it's good to be here and spread that word even further."
Difficult Journey and Healing Process
Emily, who had also experienced a miscarriage before their baby boy was stillborn, described how they had been undertaking a house renovation when she realised she hadn't felt the baby move in several days, though initially attributed this to having an anterior placenta. Nevertheless, they learnt the heartbreaking news when they had a scan.
"We had the scan and in the moment when she put the scan on my stomach, our whole world stopped," she said. "It was one of the worst weeks of our lives."
Emily also revealed how it was "really hard" and "emotional" to return to their house renovation following their baby's stillbirth, while expressing appreciation for the charities that had assisted them.
"Keep talking about it, that's the healing process," Ray said. He struggled to hold back tears as he proceeded to commend the Honeysuckle team and charities that had helped them. He said: "As soon as we sat down we spoke with a lady and she made me see it from a different perspective and the way she spoke to me made me look at it differently. She was just so calm, and said, 'We've got football teams, Ray, you can play with your son's name on the back, we've got a choir, do you want to join the choir?' It was just relaxed and fun."
Emily added: "It's like someone puts your arms around you at the worst time of your life and we felt that."
Ray continued: "We want to make a difference, we want to spread the word. Although it's difficult, don't get me wrong, it's not easy to talk about it but to help people out there, men as well, and women, but from my perspective, I've had messages from men, blokes and you can see they're burly lads, and they're saying things like, 'Thank you, I've been in absolute turmoil but I don't feel alone anymore'."
Public Tribute and Ongoing Support
The couple had previously shared their devastating loss on social media, in a bid to raise awareness for other people going through the same thing. They were flooded with love and support from followers, as they wrote: "RIO QUINN" 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."
They went on to thank those who had supported them during "the most heartbreaking week of our lives," praising the charities and baby and pregnancy loss bereavement service The Honeysuckle Team who "created some of the most beautiful moments and we have such special memories with our boy to keep forever."
Ray and Emily continued: "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! 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."
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV1 and ITVX. For more information, visit https://www.tommys.org/ or https://www.uhliverpool.nhs.uk/services/service-finder/maternity/honeysuckle-bereavement-service.
