Comedian Martin Short was married to wife Nancy Dolman for 30 years before her death.
“Our marriage was a triumph,” Short told AARP magazine in 2019. “She died in 2010, but I still communicate with her all the time. It’s ‘Hey, Nan,’ you know? How would she react to this decision or that, especially regarding our three kids. I believe that when people die, they zoom into the people that love them. This idea that it just ends, and don’t speak of them — that’s wrong. That’s based on denial that we’re all going to die.”
Short, who shared three children with Dolman, further revealed that he still felt his late wife’s presence.
“To me, she’s still here. At the same time, her death emboldened me to take risks,” he explained to the outlet. “With real tragedy, you become a little more daring. It’s the yin to the yang: the positive part of life’s dark side.”
Martin Short Through the Years: ‘SNL,’ ‘Only Murders’ and More
Keep scrolling for Short’s full dating history through the years:
Gilda Radner
Martin Short dated fellow Saturday Night Live star Gilda Radner in the 1970s.
“Every girl wanted to be her best friend and every guy wanted to go out with her,” Short recalled on the “Good Hang” podcast in March 2025. “I remember she came up to the first rehearsal and said, ‘Hi, Marty. I’m so happy to be here.’ She had her finger on her forehead. I said, ‘OK, good.’”
He continued, “She was just so original. The size of her purse, the fullness of her hair, and you know, I fell for her madly.”
Short was 22 when he dated Radner, who was four years his senior. He recalled on the podcast that the pair would break up and “get back [together] every couple years.”
“One of the issues that Gilda and I had, what we’d have fights about, was I think, ‘What do you have to be not happy about? You’re talented, you have family money, everyone loves you, everyone wants to be your friend, everyone wants to date you, no one is funnier, you get the biggest laughs of anyone on stage,’” Short said. “I was only 22. I didn’t understand.”
Radner died in 1989 after battling ovarian cancer. She was 42.
Nancy Dolman
Martin Short tied the knot with Nancy Dolman in 1980 before the couple adopted three children: Katherine, Patrick and Henry. Short and Dolman were married for three decades before Dolman died of ovarian cancer.
Us Weekly confirmed in February 2026 that the pair’s daughter, Katherine, died by suicide at 42. (If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.)
Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep joined the cast of Martin Short’s Only Murders in the Building in 2023 as the comedian’s love interest.
“I remember the first day working with Meryl and driving to the studio and thinking, ‘I’m nervous today,’” Short recalled on Conan O’Brien’s eponymous podcast in June 2025. “I [hadn’t] been nervous going to the set for a long time. The first scene we shot in Only Murders was a scene where we’re at the piano and we’re, kind of, flirting a little bit. The first shot set up is over her to me, so pressure’s on me and then we break down so that they can reverse the cameras and do her side. We go into [the] holding area and she just says, ‘OK, nerves to half.’ I go, ‘Wait a second, I was nervous. You can’t be nervous.’”
Short and Streep’s characters eventually got married as the actors’ frequent public appearances sparked romance rumors off camera.
“We’re not a couple,” Short said on the “Club Random with Bill Maher” podcast in 2024, denying the speculation. “We are just very close friends.”
