Martin Short has spoken for the first time about the death of his daughter, Katherine Short, saying her death has been \u201ca nightmare for the family\u201d.<\/p>\n
Katherine died<\/a> in February aged 42, at her home in the Hollywood Hills. The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner\u2019s office confirmed she died by suicide.<\/p>\n Speaking on CBS News Sunday Morning<\/a>, the 76-year-old comedian and actor compared his daughter\u2019s death with that of his wife, Nancy Dolman, who died of ovarian cancer in 2010 aged 58.<\/p>\n \u201cThe understanding [is] that mental health and cancer, like my wife\u2019s, are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases they are terminal,\u201d Short said. \u201cAnd 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\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, Nan\u2019s last words to me were, \u2018Martin, let me go.\u2019 And what [Katherine] was just saying [was], \u2018Dad, let me go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Short said he had a \u201cdeep desire\u201d to take \u201cmental health out of the shadows\u201d so people wouldn\u2019t be \u201cashamed\u201d of talking about it.<\/p>\n \u201cNot hiding from the word suicide, but accepting that this can be the last stage of an illness,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Short also spoke of losing several close friends and family in the past year, including his sister-in-law, his daughter and his friends Diane Keaton<\/a>, Rob and Michele Reiner<\/a> and Catherine O\u2019Hara<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s staggering,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cYou just have to breathe in, breathe out.\u201d<\/p>\n Katherine was the eldest of three children adopted by Short and Dolman. She largely kept out of the spotlight, though she sometimes attended events and walked red carpets with her father. She received a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology and gender sexuality studies from New York University in 2006, as well as a master\u2019s in social work from the University of Southern California in 2010, and went on to work in private practice as a licensed clinical social worker.<\/p>\n