Bob Saget Lost His Own Mother Around The Time That The How I Met Your Mother Finale Was In Production
Bob Saget was known for being many things, including a sitcom father and a very dirty comedian. To his friends, however, he was known to live a life surrounded by tragedy that he managed to handle with surprising grace. According to AmoMama, Saget had twin siblings who died during childbirth, Robert and Faith. His sister, Andrea, died of a brain aneurysm at 35. His other sister, Gay, died in her 40s of an autoimmune scleroderma skin condition. In honor of his late sister, Gay, Saget became a board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation.
In a 2013 interview with NewsComAu, Saget credited his family tragedies with giving him the comedic edge that he turned into a career. "There's been a lot of death in my family," Saget told NewsComAu. "My parents have lost four kids, and we dealt with death and difficulty through odd, sick humor. My dad just ended up with a strange sense of humor and I inherited it and took it to a professional level. He was able to use humor to help us survive. I like to joke that he touched a lot of people, and they're all pressing charges now." The silver lining to his family's misfortune was that Saget became especially kind to others experiencing similar hardships.
Following the "Full House" actor's death in early 2022, actor Dean Cole of "Black-ish" shared a now-deleted Instagram post in which he revealed a message of support from Saget following Cole's own mother's death in September 2021 (per People). In another Instagram post following the comedian's death, Amy Stiller shared images of Saget emceeing a memorial/tribute in her mother's honor. But, during a now-infamous plotline in "How I Met Your Mother," in which the titular mother died, Saget was dealing with yet another personal loss.
Bob Saget connected with the show's finale on a personal level
In a 2014 interview with KIIS 1065 radio station in Sydney, Australia, Bob Saget was asked what he thought of the controversial ending of "How I Met Your Mother," and the comedian revealed that he had lost his own mother at the same time that the mother character died on the show. "I actually went through some personal loss at that time, which is my mother passed away," Saget explained. "It was a good ending; she was very positive at the end ... And then I went to the last reading before she passed with my oldest daughter ... So, I knew that I was not narrating that episode and I knew that the mother passed away. So, I was happy. I thought it was beautiful." As it turned out, the coincidental timing of the episode allowed the comedian to connect with the finale's storyline on a deeply personal level.
In 2020, for what would have been 95th birthday of his mother, Dolly, Saget tweeted a tribute to her and addressed her contribution to his comedy career. "She told me not to use bad language or say irreverent stuff while my dad egged me on," Saget shared. He went on to say that he wouldn't have become the man he became without his mother's influence and encouraged fans to be nice to their mothers.