Martin Short Opens Up on Daughter Katherine's Death After Long Battle

The veteran comedian has broken his silence on the loss of his daughter Katherine, describing her years-long struggle with borderline personality disorder as a fight no different from any terminal illness.

Martin Short spoke publicly about the death of his daughter Katherine in a recent Hollywood Reporter interview.
Katherine Short lived with borderline personality disorder and, according to her father, fought the condition for a long time.
Short drew a direct parallel between severe mental illness and terminal physical illness in describing his family's experience.
He described the situation as a nightmare for the family.
The comments are among the most candid Short has made about his personal life in recent memory.

It was not a press tour moment or an awards-season sit-down. Martin Short, the comedian and actor whose career runs from SCTV to Only Murders in the Building, sat for a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter and, at some point, the conversation turned to the loss of his daughter Katherine.

Short confirmed Katherine's death and said the experience had been, in his words, “a nightmare for the family.” She had lived with borderline personality disorder, a condition Short described in terms that strip away any comfortable distance between mental illness and the kind of illness that draws flowers and casseroles. She fought, he said, for a long time.

The comparison Short drew — between Katherine's diagnosis and a terminal physical illness — is one mental health advocates have pushed into the mainstream over the past decade, though it lands differently when it comes from a father accounting for his own loss rather than a campaign slogan.

Short has been publicly open about grief before. He lost his wife, actress and writer Nancy Dolman, to ovarian cancer in 2010 after 30 years of marriage. He has spoken about her death in several long-form interviews since, usually with a composure that reads more like hard-won steadiness than performance.

The Hollywood Reporter piece did not carry an extended breakdown of Katherine's timeline or circumstances, and Short did not elaborate further in excerpts published as of this filing. The interview is available in full at hollywoodreporter.com.