Natascha McElhone shows off newborn son

Natascha McElhone gave birth alone after tragic death of husband

Brave Natascha McElhone has showed off her gorgeous newborn son in a magazine interview, where she also revealed how she's coping after the tragic death of his father, her husband.

The 37-year-old actress told how she gave birth to little Rex alone, as she had to get used to being a single parent after the sudden death of her 43-year-old husband, celebrated surgeon Martin Kelly.

'It just felt right somehow,' she explained.

'If Martin couldn’t be there, I couldn’t replace him with someone, as that would have felt very strange.

'I wanted to be on my own because that was the way it was going to be. I was going to be my baby’s only parent so I may as well get used to it.'

Natascha was approximately four months pregnant with the couple's third child when she learned of Martin's untimely death from a heart condition outside their home in London.

In the interview with Hello magazine, the actress told how her knees buckled upon hearing the terrible news from a close friend.

'I did that thing I thought people only did in movies – I dropped the phone and my knees sort of buckled under me.'

Natascha had been filming the TV series Californication in LA, where she was staying with the couple's two boys, Theo, eight, and Otis, five. Martin's death came just four days after the pair's tenth wedding anniversary and he was about to fly over to see her and celebrate it before her 20-week scan.

Cranio-facial surgeon Kelly was credited with helping children across the globe suffering from facial disfigurements through the Facing The World charity.

The couple's third son Rex was born on 16 October last year, at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where Martin had carried out much of his work.

Natascha explained she named the boy Rex Coltrane Kelly as her husband's hero was jazz musician John Coltrane. She admitted he was almost called Coltrane Kelly.

The actress said of the two elder sons: 'They just adore their little brother and are for ever smothering him in kisses, but then that’s how we’ve always communicated – with hugs and kisses.'

She declined to describe how the boys took the news of their father's death, and added: 'I thank God I had two babies with Martin before so I know exactly what his reaction to Rex would be.

'So I imagine him kissing the back of Rex’s neck and doing all the things he loved doing with the others.

'I say to the boys, "Daddy used to do this with you guys." They’ll say, "Let’s do it to Rexy!" and we all pile in and give him hugs.

'I walked in the park this morning thinking of Martin, as I always do, and wondering: the one thing I miss terribly about him is that he had the answers to everything.

'I guess what I want to know now is what would his answer be to this – to our loss, to life without him. But I’ll never know.'