“Leo is a happy, thriving little boy,” Louis Mullan says. “He’s full of personality, very expressive and already saying a few words like ‘lion,’ ‘doggy’ and ‘banana’ ”
Credit: Louis Mullan
NEED TO KNOW
- Louis Mullan, a survivor of the 2004 tsunami that killed his parents and numerous others and left him and his younger brother orphaned, has named his son Leonardo after his father
- “We’ll always make sure Leo understands and feels connected to his grandparents’ legacy,” he tells PEOPLE
- Louis hopes Leonardo grows up to be kind and loving — which are values that “meant a great deal” to the parents he lost in the catastrophe
A teenager who survived the world's deadliest tsunami that killed both of his parents is, decades later, now a dad himself and named his son after the father he lost.
“I think they would be incredibly proud and touched,” Louis Mullan, 38, tells PEOPLE of his mom and dad, Leonard and Catherine.
The parents were two of approximately 230,000 people killed in the catastrophe triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Indonesia on Dec. 26, 2004.
Louis, then 16, and younger brother Theo, 11, were on vacation with them in Thailand at the time.
Credit: ROMEO GACAD/AFP via Getty
More than 20 years later, Louis, who first spoke with PEOPLE in 2024 about the harrowing disaster, says that having his own son, Leonardo, is “an absolute joy and a privilege.”
“Leo is a happy, thriving little boy,” Louis says. “He’s full of personality, very expressive and already saying a few words like ‘lion,’ ‘doggy’ and ‘banana.’ ”
And it was an “amazing” pregnancy, according to Louis, who runs a veterinary business with Rachel, his wife, in Cornwall, England.
“The experience is hard to describe, but it’s unlike anything else,” he says. “While it can be a juggle with work and life, Rachel and I are loving every moment and hope to grow our family in the future.”
Credit: Louis Mullan
Young Leonardo, or Leo, was born in January 2025 after “a beautiful day” that included a walk on the beach before heading to the hospital, Louis says.
Rachel, 37, used hypnobirthing techniques (an approach to give birth with self-hypnosis, according to the Cleveland Clinic) and had a “calm, natural water birth with no medical intervention,” her husband says.
"We chose the name Leo as a modern take on my dad’s name, Leonard," Louis explains. "We liked the sound of Leo over Len or Leonard, and gave him the full name Leonardo for a slightly more European feel. His middle name, Pierre, is the French version of Peter, which is Rachel’s dad’s name, so his name is a combination of both our fathers."
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Credit: Louis Mullan
Louis, who traveled frequently with his parents, is now carrying on that tradition with his growing family, including trips to Dubai, France, Ibiza and Switzerland as well as a longer swing through Thailand and Vietnam.
“We returned to the beach we had been on during the tsunami and revisited some of the areas where we spent time afterwards,” Louis says. “It felt very surreal going back, as so much had changed.”
Orphaned in the tsunami, Louis and Theo were later taken in by a neighboring family; they all remain close today.
"Knowing that we are still here and together, more importantly, would be some comfort [to our parents]," Louis previously told PEOPLE.
Credit: courtesy
Louis says he plans to tell his son about what happened to Leonard and Catherine.
“We have photos of his grandparents around the house, and as he grows older, we’ll make sure he understands the story,” he says. “The National Geographic documentary [Tsunami: Race Against Time, in which he appeared] will be an important way to help explain it. It’s important to us that he knows not only our family history but also the wider impact it had.”
Louis hopes Leonardo grows up to be kind and loving — which are values that “meant a great deal” to his parents — and that his son has an “adventurous side, with a passion for travel and exploring the world.”
Eventually, he says, he is hoping to continue building his business to support his family’s life and potentially have more children.
“Family is at the centre of everything for us,” Louis says, “and we’ll always make sure Leo understands and feels connected to his grandparents’ legacy.”
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