For Pete Davidson, September 11 has never been an ordinary date.

He was only seven years old when his father, New York City firefighter Scott Matthew Davidson, died while responding to the attacks on the World Trade Center.

For 25 years, Pete has carried the loss of the man he remembers as his father — a firefighter who loved his job and died trying to save other people.

But this year, the anniversary feels different.

Pete is now 33 years old — exactly the age his father was when he died.

And for the first time, Pete is experiencing September 11 as a father himself.

Beside him is his baby daughter, Scottie Rose, a little girl whose name carries a direct connection to the grandfather she will never meet.

The coincidence has made this anniversary especially painful for Davidson.

But it has also given him something he did not have as a seven-year-old boy: the chance to look at the tragedy from the other side.

He is no longer only the child who lost his father.

He is now the father wondering what it would mean for his own child to grow up without him.

“Now I’m There”

Davidson recently reflected on the 25th anniversary of his father’s death and admitted that this year has been harder than many of the anniversaries before it.

The reason is simple.

He has a daughter now.

When Scott Davidson died on September 11, 2001, Pete was too young to fully understand what the loss would mean for the rest of his life.

For years, he thought of his father as an older man.

Then something changed.

Pete reached the same age his father had been when he died.

Suddenly, 33 did not seem old anymore.

It was his age.

He was looking at his own life, his own child and his own responsibilities — and realizing that his father had been living through many of those same experiences when his life suddenly ended.

The thought became almost impossible to ignore.

Pete explained that he used to think, essentially, that his father had been an old man when he died.

Now he is the same age.

And he has a child.

That realization forces him to imagine the tragedy from his father’s perspective — and from his own daughter’s perspective.

What would it be like for Scottie to grow up without her dad?

That is the question that makes this year’s anniversary so different.

He Was Just Seven When His World Changed

Pete Davidson has spoken many times about the way he learned his father was gone.

Scott Davidson was a New York City firefighter assigned to Ladder 118 in Brooklyn Heights.

On September 11, he responded to the World Trade Center after the attacks.

Pete was at home with his family.

For weeks afterward, there was uncertainty.

Rescuers were still searching.

Families were still hoping.

People were being pulled from the ruins, and there remained a possibility that some missing firefighters could still be found.

Pete has recalled that he eventually saw his father on television while news reports were showing firefighters who had died.

He was only seven.

The image became one of the defining memories of his childhood.

The loss affected him deeply and eventually became part of the stories he told publicly about growing up without his father.

Years later, Pete’s experiences would also become part of his comedy and acting career.

His 2020 film The King of Staten Island drew heavily from the experience of losing a firefighter father in the September 11 attacks.

But now, at 33, he is looking at that childhood loss through an entirely different lens.

He understands fatherhood in a way he could not have understood it at seven.

Then Came Scottie Rose

In December 2025, Pete became a father for the first time when he and model Elsie Hewitt welcomed their daughter, Scottie Rose.

The baby’s name was not accidental.

Scott was Pete’s father’s first name.

His nickname had been Scotty.

When the baby arrived, Pete and Elsie agreed that Scottie felt like the right name for her.

For Pete, it meant something more than simply choosing a family name.

It meant keeping a piece of his father alive.

A man who died before Pete could grow into adulthood was now being remembered through a little girl who will carry his name throughout her own life.

Scottie will never hear her grandfather tell a story.

She will never see him walk through the front door.

She will never know him in the ordinary way grandchildren know their grandparents.

But Pete has photographs.

He has videos.

And, most importantly, he has memories.

He has said he is looking forward to telling Scottie the stories he remembers about her grandfather when she is old enough to understand them.

One Photograph Has Already Become Special

There is one detail about Scottie that has particularly touched Pete.

When she was a newborn, he and Elsie would sometimes bathe her in the sink.

Above that sink was a photograph of Scott Davidson.

Pete noticed that his daughter would repeatedly look toward the picture.

At first, he did not know what to make of it.

Maybe she was simply a newborn looking around the room.

Maybe the photograph happened to catch her attention.

But later, Pete moved the photograph to a different location.

Scottie still turned her head toward it.

Pete has admitted that he does not know what to believe about moments like that.

But he likes to think that somehow, in some way, his father’s presence is still around.

For a man who lost his dad before he could truly know him as an adult, that small connection carries enormous emotional meaning.

His First 9/11 as a Father

This year’s anniversary is not only about remembering Scott.

It is also about understanding what Scott’s death meant.

Pete now knows what it feels like to hold a newborn daughter.

He knows the instinct to protect her.

He knows the exhaustion of parenthood.

He knows the overwhelming feeling of realizing that another human being depends on you.

And that makes the sacrifice his father made feel different.

Pete has described fatherhood as exhausting, rewarding and incredibly special.

He has also talked about feeling unusually protective of his daughter.

Those emotions make the events of 2001 more personal in a way he could never have understood as a child.

His father had been someone’s husband.

Someone’s son.

Someone’s brother.

And, most importantly to Pete, someone’s dad.

Scott left for work that morning and never came home.

Pete was left to grow up with photographs, memories and stories instead of the ordinary experiences fathers and sons often take for granted.

Now he is trying to make sure his own daughter will know exactly who her grandfather was.

The Future Pete’s Father Never Got to See

There is something almost heartbreaking about the age Pete has reached.

When Scott Davidson died, he was 33.

He never got to see his son become an adult.

He never saw Pete become a comedian.

He never watched him perform on television or in movies.

He never saw Saturday Night Live.

He never saw The King of Staten Island.

He never met the woman who would eventually become the mother of his granddaughter.

And he never held Scottie Rose.

But Pete can still give his daughter something.

He can give her the stories.

He can show her the photographs.

He can tell her what her grandfather was like before she was born.

And he can make sure that the name Scott continues to mean something in their family.

A Day That Is Still Painful — But Different Now

Pete has described this year’s September 11 as both “extra tough” and “extra beautiful.”

The contradiction makes sense.

It is painful because he now understands exactly what his father lost.

But it is also beautiful because Pete gets to spend the day with his own daughter.

Twenty-five years ago, he was a seven-year-old boy who lost his dad.

Today, he is a 33-year-old father holding a baby girl named after him.

The little girl will grow up knowing that her name belonged to a firefighter who gave his life trying to save others.

And someday, when Scottie is old enough to ask why she was named Scottie, Pete will have an answer.

He will tell her about the grandfather she never met.

He will tell her about the firefighter who loved his job.

He will tell her about September 11.

And, perhaps most importantly, he will tell her that even though her grandfather’s life ended 25 years before she was born, his memory never disappeared.

It simply found another generation to live in.