Martin Short speaks for first time about ‘nightmare’ of his daughter’s death

Martin Short is pictured with his daughter Katherine, back in 2011. (Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Warning: This story mentions suicide.

Martin Short has spoken publicly for the first time about the “nightmare” of losing his daughter Katherine earlier this year.

The “Only Murders in the Building” star told CBS in an exclusive interview aired Sunday that Katherine’s death by suicide back in February has been devastating. Katherine Short was 42 when she died, according to media reports at the time. She was one of three children the now 76-year-old comedian adopted with his wife, Nancy Dolman, who died of ovarian cancer in 2010.

Speaking ahead of the release of a new Netflix documentary about his life, Canadian-born Short said that “it’s been a nightmare for the family,” but he explained that it has helped him to understand that “mental health and cancer (like my wife) are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases they are terminal.”

He went on to tell interviewer Tracy Smith about his daughter’s long-term struggles. “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 (Nancy’s) last words to me were ‘Mart, let me go’ and she was just saying ‘Dad, let me go.’”

The loss has led Short to become involved with a non-profit organization called “Bring Change to Mind,” started by actress Glenn Close as a result of mental illness in her own family, he said.

Short said he had a “deep desire” to be involved with the organization, which is “taking mental health out of the shadows, not being ashamed of it, not hiding from the word suicide, but accepting that this can be the last stage of an illness.”

The documentary movie “Marty, Life is Short” goes behind the scenes of Short’s long career as a much-loved comic actor with the help of never-before-seen archive footage. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan, it’s dedicated to the memory of Katherine and to Short’s good friend Catherine O’Hara, the “Schitt’s Creek” star, who died just weeks before his daughter.

Short is no stranger to grief, as he discussed in the interview. By age 20 he had lost both his parents and his older brother David, who was killed in a car crash. “What it developed in me is this muscle of survival and handling grief and a perspective on it and it stayed with me,” he told Smith.

He said his experience gave him “an understanding from my childhood that the end of life was going to happen to all of us.” He said that while it comes too early for some, keeping their memory alive is all -important. “They’ve just gone into the next room for a while, (and eventually) you’ll be in that room,” he said.

Short said he had never been in therapy, instead preferring his own coping mechanisms. “You just have to breathe in, breathe out,” he said. “What I do is I dictate into my phone and I transcribe it. And I look at it and rewrite it and put it away.”

He added: “I think we are all in denial about our limited time on this Earth. It’s very difficult to accept it.”

“The more you accept it, I think, it does lift you and make you feel that this is a complicated little journey, life. And the more we approach it with wisdom, probably the happier we’ll be.”

The documentary streams on Netflix from Tuesday, May 12.

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN

If you or someone you know is in crisis or struggling with mental illness, here are some resources that are available.

Canada Suicide Crisis Helpline (Call or text 988 or visit 988.ca)

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (1-800-463-2338)

Kids Help Phone [phone])

If you need immediate assistance call 911 or go to the nearest hospital.