Martin Short reveals wife's last words… and the heartbreaking link to tragic daughter Katherine

Martin Short has offered a glimpse into the final moments he spent with his wife Nancy Dolman, and how it connects with the recent heartbreaking loss of his daughter Katherine.

Nancy battled ovarian cancer for three years before succumbing to the disease in 2010 at age 58, while Katherine, 42, took her own life in February, after a long battle with mental illness.

Speaking to The New York Times in an interview published on Friday, the 76-year-old actor shared the last words that Nancy spoke to him.

'Martin, let me go,' Short described Nancy telling him.

'Katherine was saying: Dad, let me go,' he explained. 'I don't see any difference between mental illness as a disease and cancer as a disease. In some cases, both are terminal. And in some cases, both are survivable.'

The Only Murders in the Building star, who was celebrated by his longtime friend, Catherine O'Hara, in the Netflix documentary, Marty, Life is Short, before her own passing in January, said he is still grappling with his daughter's death. 

He added it feels different from Nancy's death because 'this is your child. I am trying to head toward the light.'

Short met Nancy in 1972 when he was appearing in a production of Godspell. He was dating and living with his co-star – and future SNL star - Gilda Radner at the time, but two years later they broke up and Short started dating Nancy.

They wed in 1980 and welcomed three children through adoption: Katherine, Oliver, 40, and Henry, 36.

Short spoke similarly while appearing on CBS News Sunday Morning on May 10, saying that Katherine's death has been 'a nightmare for the family.'

'The understanding [is] that mental health and cancer, like my wife's, are both diseases, and sometimes with diseases they are terminal,' he said while on the program.

'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, 'Martin, let me go.' And what she was saying was, 'Dad, let me go,' he added, the last a reference to Katherine, who was a licensed clinical social worker in Los Angeles.

'So I hold a deep desire. And that's why I'm involved in this organization, Bring Change to Mind... taking mental health out of the shadows, not being ashamed of it, not hiding from the word 'suicide,' but accepting that this could be the last stage of an illness – and that's my approach to this.'

Katherine died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head inside her Hollywood Hills home, as confirmed by the Los Angeles coroner, per People.

She legally changed her name to Katherine Elizabeth Hartley in 2013, in an effort to separate herself from her father's fame.

But by all accounts, she had a loving relationship with The Three Amigos star.

In a statement released after her death, the Short family said she was 'beloved by all and will be remembered for the light and joy she brought into the world.'