Ahead of his new documentary, Marty, Life Is Short, Martin Short reflected on his “staggering” past four months of personal loss. Short gave his first interview since his daughter Katherine died by suicide to CBS Sunday Mornings. “It’s been a nightmare for the family,” he said of his daughter’s death. “Mental health and cancer, like my wife, are both diseases — and sometimes with diseases, they are terminal.”
Reflecting on his daughter’s death, Short reiterated the belief that mental illness is a disease, one that can turn fatal. “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,” Short said. “So Nan’s last words to me were, ‘Mart, let me go.’ And she was just saying, ‘Dad, let me go.’”
Short’s daughter Katherine died in February, just the latest in a long list of loss for Short. The documentary covers his early life, marked by the passing of both his parents before he turned 20 and the death of his brother when he was a child. Short’s wife Nancy died of ovarian cancer in 2010. “And suddenly, last October, I lost Diane Keaton on the same day I lost my sister-in-law, Nancy’s sister, to cancer,” Short told CBS. “Then Rob and Michelle [Reiner] have been my lifelong friends for 40 years … And then Catherine O’Hara and then my daughter. I mean, it’s been in four months. Staggering.”
If you or anyone you know are in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline by dialing 988.
