Inside The Tragic Death Of Bob Saget's Sister
Beloved comedian Bob Saget's death at the age of 65 has left fans, family, close friends, and those who worked with him over his career in complete shock. The collective mourning has brought about a flurry of heartwarming messages and celebrity reactions to the unfortunate news.
Saget's death was confirmed by the Orange County Sheriff's Office on January 9, noting in a tweet that the discovery at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando offered "no signs of foul play or drug use in this case." According to TMZ, the comedian was on tour, scheduled to play throughout Florida for several months at the time of his death.
Despite his raunchy comedy, he was widely known as a family man, per The New York Times, from his role of Danny Tanner in "Full House" and as the host of "America's Funniest Home Videos." Saget's real family life had been tinged with tragedy decades ago, hitting the actor so hard that it would change the course of his career and inspire new passions through charity, bringing many other funny folk along the way.
Bob Saget's sister was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease
Bob Saget experienced the tragedy of losing both of his sisters, Andrea and Gay, to natural causes that occurred well before anyone could have expected. According to People, Andrea died in 1985 of a brain aneurysm, and just shy of a decade later, Gay died from the autoimmune disorder scleroderma. Meaning "hard skin," scleroderma is an incurable disease that involves "the hardening and tightening of the skin and connective tissues," as defined by the Mayo Clinic.
When Gay was diagnosed in 1992, Saget was already familiar with the disease from previously accepting an invitation to perform standup at a benefit. The "America's Funniest Home Videos" host began fundraising with the Scleroderma Research Foundation regularly. In an article he wrote for Today in 2016, he shared, "Performing and hosting benefits were the only ways to fund research dedicated to finding a cure, or, at the very least, finding ways to put the disease into some kind of remission. That was the best way to fund-raise for this difficult disease — through humor."
Only four years into his work with the foundation, Saget and his family were directly affected and devastated by the disease as Gay died at the age of 47. He went on to become a board member and continued to raise awareness for the cause until his death, leaving behind a hopeful legacy of those looking to help.