Patton Oswalt Credits Daughter For Saving Him After Wife's Death

The comedian would be in a bad place if it weren't for his daughter, Alice.

Speaking with Playboy, Patton Oswalt opened up about coping with the death of his wife, Michelle McNamara. "I'm forever glad that I have Alice," the 48-year-old said. "If I hadn't had a daughter and my wife died, we wouldn't be talking right now. I'm not saying I would be dead, but I would be a shut-in alcoholic."

"Everything would have shut down," Oswalt continued. "I wouldn't have been about anything. But with Alice, it was and is 'You got to get up.' There are mornings when we're late to school because I'm sad, but I've still f**king got to get up. A night when I've had maybe one scotch with some friends, I'll say, 'That's it. I've got to take her to school tomorrow.'"

Claiming he otherwise would have become "morbidly obese," the Veep actor explained, "I'd be rewatching movies I've seen a million times, and I would have wallowed and sealed myself off in a falsely comforting bath of despair. Depression is not terrifying. Depression is seductive and comforting. It sticks around so long because it creates this false sense of 'Oh, here's where I'm safe.' Grief is like depression's drill sergeant. It knows the tricks that depression doesn't know. Grief is like, 'Hey, depression, I taught you everything you know, but I didn't teach you everything I know. Here, watch what I can do.'"

McNamara passed away in April 2016, due to a combination of an undiagnosed heart condition and prescription medication, notably Adderall, Xanax, and Fentanyl, according to Variety.

As Nicki Swift previously reported, Oswalt opened up about his wife's death in August 2016 with a raw, emotional letter detailing his grieving process. At the time, he noted, "I'm going to start telling jokes again soon. And writing. And acting in stuff and making things I like and working with friends on projects and do all the stuff I was always so privileged to get to do before the air caught fire around me and the sun died."

Since then, he's found happiness once more with a new lady love, actress Meredith Salenger, to whom he got engaged in July 2017.

Curious about just what happened to McNamara? Here's everything you need to know about Oswalt's family tragedy.