Conan O’Brien is mourning the loss of both his parents in the same week.
The 61-year-old television host’s father, Dr. Thomas O’Brien, passed away at the age of 95 on Dec. 9.
Tragically, just three days later, on Dec. 12, his mother, Ruth Reardon O’Brien, also passed away at her home in Brookline, Massachusetts, at the age of 92.
This series of events has left the TV host devastated. He paid tribute to his dad in an interview with the Boston Globe, which was published on Thursday, saying that his father “had a voracious appetite for ideas, people, and the crazy variety and irony of life. He wanted to go everywhere, meet everybody, see everything, taste everything.”
“For the rest of my time on earth I will be hearing from people who want to talk with me about my dad,” Conan said. “I’ve never met anyone like him, and he happens to be my father. If I met him randomly in a hotel lobby, I’d think, ‘Who the hell is this guy? He’s the most interesting person I’ve ever met.’ ”
Conan previously shared an anecdote about his mother meeting movie funnyman, Jim Carrey, at a Christmas party and failing to recognize him.
During an appearance on Ryan Tubridy’s Virgin Radio show earlier this year, Conan recalled how his mother had a long chat with Jim Carrey and said, “I got nervous. When the party was over, I asked: ‘Mom, what were you talking to that man about? Jim?’
‘And she said: ‘Oh, he told me that he’s a comedian, and I told him: ‘Well my son’s had his difficulties but he just keeps at it and eventually made it. So if you just keep at it Jim, you’re gonna make it too’.
‘And I said to her: ‘Mom, I want you to go home to Boston and tell everyone you told Jim Carrey to keep at it!'”
Both of Conan’s parents were trailblazers in their respective career fields.
Ruth was only one of four women in her Yale Law School class and was elected vice president of the student government, according to her obituary.
She later became a real estate attorney and was the second woman to become a partner at her law firm in 1978. She retired in 1996 after 25 years.
Meanwhile, Thomas was a physician, epidemiologist, and professor at Harvard Medical School for three decades and served as the first director of the infectious diseases division at what is now Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Ruth and Thomas were married for 66 years. The couple is survived by their six children, including Conan, as well as nine grandchildren.
A funeral mass for both of Conan’s parents will be held in Boston on Dec. 18.