If you’ve ever watched or read an in-depth interview with Martin Short, you probably already know that every part of his life has been shaped by profound loss. Before the age of 21, he lost both of his parents and one of his siblings. Short’s wife Nancy Dolman passed away in 2010 after battling ovarian cancer. Many of Short’s colleagues and friends have passed away over the years too, including (very recently) Rob Reiner and Catherine O’Hara. And then in February, Short’s daughter Katherine died by suicide. Since Katherine’s passing, Short took a break from everything, and his friends have rallied around him. Last week, he stepped out for his first event since his daughter’s death, the premiere of his Netflix documentary, Marty: Life Is Short, which is out this week (the premiere photos are in this post). So many of his comedian and actor friends came out to support him, and his family was there too.
Over the weekend, CBS Sunday Morning aired their interview with Short, which was the first time he’s spoken publicly about Katherine. He spoke movingly about the loss of his child, about Katherine’s mental health battle and how he views Katherine’s suicide as simply the final stage of a disease.
Martin Short has spoken for the first time about the death of his daughter, Katherine Short, saying her death has been “a nightmare for the family”. Katherine died in February aged 42, at her home in the Hollywood Hills. The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s office confirmed she died by suicide.
Speaking on CBS News Sunday Morning, the 76-year-old comedian and actor compared his daughter’s death with that of his wife, Nancy Dolman, who died of ovarian cancer in 2010 aged 58.
“The understanding [is] that mental health and cancer, like my wife’s, are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases they are terminal,” Short said. “And my daughter fought for a long time with extreme mental health, borderline personality disorder, other things, and did the best she could, until she couldn’t.
“So, Nan’s last words to me were, ‘Martin, let me go.’ And what [Katherine] was just saying [was], ‘Dad, let me go.’”
Short said he had a “deep desire” to take “mental health out of the shadows” so people wouldn’t be “ashamed” of talking about it.
“Not hiding from the word suicide, but accepting that this can be the last stage of an illness,” he said.
Short also spoke of losing several close friends and family in the past year, including his sister-in-law, his daughter and his friends Diane Keaton, Rob and Michele Reiner and Catherine O’Hara.
“It’s staggering,” he said, adding: “You just have to breathe in, breathe out.”
This sadly reminds me of what Regina King said about her son’s death as well. And for Short to have so much loss at every stage of his life is staggering, as he said. It’s shocking that he can even get out of bed, that he can even put one foot in front of the other.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·