Martin Short Breaks Silence on Passing of Daughter Katherine

Martin Short spoke for the first time of about the passing of his daughter Katherine during an interview with CBS News Sunday Morning this weekend. Katherine died by suicide at the age of 42 in February 2026.

“You know, it’s been a nightmare for the family, but the understanding [is] that mental health and cancer [as battled by his late wife Nancy Dolman] are both diseases,” Short said. “And sometimes with diseases, they are terminal. 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, ‘Marty, let me go,’ and she was just saying, ‘Dad, let me go,'” he continued.

Short said his daughter’s experiences led his involvement in Bring Change 2 Mind, an organization started by Glenn Close “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. And that’s my approach to this.”