Speaking to CBS Sunday Morning for first time since daughter Katherine's suicide, actor says, "Mental health and cancer... are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases, they are terminal"

Martin Short opened up about his daughter’s death by suicide earlier this year for the first time in a new interview.

Speaking to CBS Sunday Morning ahead of the release of the Netflix documentary Marty: Life Is Short, the comedian-actor talked about how tragedy marred his childhood, as he lost an older brother and both his parents before he turned 20.

“What it developed in me was this muscle of survival and handling grief and a perspective on it,” Short said.

That tragedy continued into adulthood, as his wife Nancy Dolman died of cancer in 2010, his longtime friend and collaborator Catherine O’Hara died in January, followed weeks later by his daughter Katherine, who died by suicide in February. 

Speaking about his daughter’s death for the first time, Short said, “You know, it’s been a nightmare for the family, but the understanding that mental health and cancer — like my wife — are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases, they are terminal.”

He continued, “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 [Nancy’s] last words to me were ‘Martin, let me go,’ and what [Katherine] was just saying, ‘Dad, let me go.'”

Short continues to remain resilient in the face of the tragedies, with another season of Only Murders in the Building about to film and plans to return to Broadway with co-star and now-girlfriend Meryl Streep. “We are trying to figure out something, we’re just not sure if the box office is gonna be there,” Short joked to CBS Sunday Morning. “It’s a gamble, you never know how Meryl is going to do at the box office, but let’s hope.”