Southern Charm newcomer Molly O’Connell will always remember her late brother, who died at the age of 14.
“His name was Patrick and he was severely intellectually disabled,” O’Connell, 37, said on the Friday, February 21, episode of the “Reality Life with Kate Casey” podcast. “He was quadriplegic [and] he could really only move his head a little bit, couldn’t speak. Once I was born, he was living in a facility that could take care of him because he needed a lot of care around the clock.”
O’Connell, who was adopted when she was an infant, further explained that Patrick “died of sepsis in my dad’s arms.” She was 6 years old at the time of his passing.
“He was sick all his life, in and out of [the] ICU,” O’Connell explained, noting that Patrick’s death inspired her to pursue a career in fashion, including an appearance on cycle 16 of America’s Next Top Model.
“[It gave me] the desire to [make the most of life],” she explained. “A lot of times I get paralyzed by my own fear, like, around music. I probably would have wanted to be a professional musician, singing [and on] Broadway, and I got very scared about that. I have a lot of guilt around not pursuing every single thing that I want to.”
According to O’Connell, her guilt is “subconsciously” based on “not taking advantage of all the things that I am able to do.”
“I really have done a lot and my parents have supported that,” she said. “They never cared if I was smart or good at anything, They just wanted me to be happy and funny. They wanted me to have a good sense of humor, which I think me and Ian — my other brother — do.”
Navigating Patrick’s death further “caused [O’Connell] to do the most” she can in life. O’Connell has also undergone therapy to help deal with his passing.
“I had a lot of death in my family when I was young,” she explained. “My brother died when I was 6 and, within about six months, two of my uncles and a cousin died of cancer. But, I was so young [and] I think they thought, ‘Oh, it doesn’t affect her much.’ I think it did.”
Dealing with the trauma of multiple familial deaths, amongst other challenges, led O’Connell to act out.
“I was told at a very young age that I was adopted before I could really quite comprehend that as a 3- [or] 4-year-old,” she told podcaster Kate Casey. “I was a relatively good child, they say, and then in middle school, I just started acting out a little.”
Regardless of O’Connell’s behavioral issues, her parents have “always stuck by” her and even paid for her therapy sessions.
“They’ve tried to figure out ‘what can we do to help her’ and they’ve continued to do that now [through my] late 30s,” O’Connell said. “They’re always helping me try and find new therapies and stuff.”
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