Molly Shannon and Stephen Colbert Get Emotional Discussing Their Personal Tragedies

It was an emotional night on CBS as Molly Shannon and The Late Show's Stephen Colbert discussed the tragedies that shaped their lives. As she does in her new memoir "Hello, Molly!" Shannon opened up about the car accident that took the lives of her mother and sister when she was just four years old, and she and Colbert, whose father and two brothers died in a tragic plane crash, bonded over their commitment to living life to the fullest.

"When you know somebody else who's lost a parent as a kid — I read everything you write about it, because I relate to everything," Shannon told Colbert. "You said you wanted to make your mother laugh and cheer her up, and stuff like that, right? I relate to all that stuff, too, and in some ways, I wanted to make sure my dad was okay. My dad was really interested in writing and performing. We used to do acting exercises in the house. And so I kind of also did that for him too because it made him so happy. Getting into showbiz, you do it to help them too."

Shannon began to tear up as she praised Colbert for being open about losing his father and brothers at just 10 years old. "You're so intelligent and you put it in such an elegant way, expressing that loss," she said. "And what it gives you in expressing pain and grief and all of that. And you just express yourself so elegantly, and I admire you for your intelligence."

When Colbert asked what this experience "gave" her, Shannon insisted the tragedy gives her an "urgency about life" and motherhood. "I just get like, 'Oh my god, we're all alive and like —" she said, choking back tears. "It's so sad to talk about on such a comedy show, but I feel so grateful that we're alive and we're living and I don't take it for granted. Because I guess you never know how many years you have with somebody so I feel grateful and an urgency about like, you're up to bat and you're f*cking alive!"

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35 PM ET on CBS.

Claire Spellberg Lustig is the Senior Editor at Primetimer and a scholar of The View. Follow her on Twitter at @c_spellberg.