Martin Short is looking back on his love life – and on one ex-girlfriend in particular.
The “Only Murders in the Building” star, 74, opened up about his lengthy on-and-off-again relationship with late actress and comedian Gilda Radner during Tuesday’s episode of the “Good Hang with Amy Poehler” podcast.
Short said he first met Radner in 1972 during a production of the musical “Godspell” in Toronto, Canada.
Although the couple would go on to “break up” and “get back” together “every couple of years,” Short admitted he “fell for her madly” at first.
“Every girl wanted to be her best friend and every guy wanted to go out with her,” Short told Poehler, 53, of his ex. “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,” he continued. “I said, ‘OK, good.’ She pulled [away] and she had a big pimple here.”
The actor explained, “She was just so original. The size of her purse, the fullness of her hair, and you know, I fell for her madly.”
However, Short – who eventually met his future wife, Nancy Dolman, during a break from dating Radner – also admitted that the original “Saturday Night Live” cast member had her “emotional ups and downs.”
“In fact, I’ll tell you exactly what is very interesting,” the “Three Amigos” star said during the podcast. “Gilda had, you know, emotional ups and downs. And I had just gone through a period where my parents had died, and my mother had died, and all she wanted to do was live. And she was the happiest person in the world.”
Short continued, “So to me, 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.’”
“But I was only 22,” he acknowledged. “I didn’t understand.”
Radner passed away from ovarian cancer in 1989. She was 42.
Original “SNL” cast members Jane Curtin and Laraine Newman paid tribute to Radner last month during the “Saturday Night Live” 50th anniversary special on NBC.
Dolman, who Short married in 1980, passed away at age 58 in 2010 after a battle with ovarian cancer. She and the “SNL” alum were married for 30 years and adopted three children.
“I believe that when people die, they zoom into the people that love them,” the sketch comedian said of his late wife during an interview with “AARP The Magazine” in 2019.
“This idea that it just ends, and don’t speak of them — that’s wrong,” Short added. “That’s based on denial that we’re all going to die. So to me, she’s still here.”
Short’s appearance on Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast also came amid romance rumors he’s dating his “Only Murders” co-star Meryl Streep.
Although Short denied they were a couple on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast last year, he’s continued to fuel the romance rumors by stepping out with the Oscar winner several times since then.
