Molly Shannon is opening up about losing her mother, younger sister, and cousin in a tragic car accident when she was just four years old.
Her father, who had driven under the influence, was also horribly injured during the incident.
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“I was very heartbroken and very sad and just trying to hold it all together as a kid,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
“There’s no way that you could feel that type of deep pain about your mother and your sister being dead, so you just hold it all in, and it comes up later in life.”
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The “Saturday Night Live” alum also revealed how her character Mary Katherine Gallagher came about.
Gallagher was “really based on me, how I felt after the accident — really nervous, accident-prone, wanting to please, f—ed up but full of hope,” she explained. “I just exaggerated everything I felt as a little girl and turned it into a character.”
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Why she has decided to speak about the experience now, Shannon added, “You feel like you put your heart right there on the table, but I hope that my story can help other people.”
