Martin Short has broken his silence about the death of his daughter Katherine, calling the experience "a nightmare for the family" - which is putting it mildly, given that nightmares usually end when you wake up.
Katherine Short died in February at her home in the Hollywood Hills at age 42. The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner's office confirmed the cause as suicide. Short, 76, compared this loss to that of his wife Nancy Dolman, who died of ovarian cancer in 2010 at 58. "The understanding [is] that mental health and cancer, like my wife's, are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases they are terminal," he said on CBS News Sunday Morning. "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."
Short recalled his wife's last words - "Martin, let me go" - and said Katherine's were essentially the same: "Dad, let me go." He expressed a "deep desire" to drag mental health "out of the shadows" so people wouldn't be "ashamed" of discussing it. "Not hiding from the word suicide, but accepting that this can be the last stage of an illness," he explained.
The comedian also noted that the past year has been especially brutal on the loss front, claiming his sister-in-law, daughter, and friends Diane Keaton, Rob and Michele Reiner, and Catherine O'Hara. "It's staggering," he said, adding the simple survival mantra: "You just have to breathe in, breathe out."
Katherine, the eldest of three children adopted by Short and Dolman, largely stayed out of the spotlight - though she occasionally walked red carpets with her dad. She earned a bachelor's in psychology and gender sexuality studies from New York University in 2006 and a master's in social work from the University of Southern California in 2010, then worked as a licensed clinical social worker. So she spent her professional life helping others with mental health, a cruel irony her father now confronts publicly.
Short spoke ahead of a new Netflix documentary about his life titled Marty, Life Is Short, premiering May 12. The film covers his early losses: his older brother David died in a car accident when Short was 12, and both parents died while he was still a teenager. Short said that forged "this muscle of survival and handling grief and a perspective on it" - plus the courage to perform: "I think if you've gone through that, an audience not liking you is really not that important any more."
In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org