Stephen Colbert’s Touching Tribute to Late Mum

American political satirist Stephen Colbert has opened his eponymous show “The Colbert Report” with a touching tribute to his late mum. Lorna Tuck Colbert passed last week at the age of 92, and her youngest son dedicated a few minutes of the show to his loving mother.

After taking a brief hiatus following the death of his mother, the normally jovial comedian opened his show in a more subdued demeanour. There was no cause given for her death.

“Now if you watch the show and you like the show, that’s because of everybody who works here, and I’m lucky to be one of them. But when you watch the show and you also like me, that’s because of my mum. So before we start the show again, I’d like to tell you about my mother,” the 49-year-old host said.

He then spoke fondly of the Colbert matriarch while holding back tears. According to him, she was a loving mother who taught her 11 children love and who endured tragedies in her life when her husband, three sons, and her brother died without becoming bitter.

Lorna met her husband James at age 12, but she wouldn’t want him to know how much she liked him so she asked her friends to ride their bikes and pass by his house but without bothering to look if James was in their front yard. This, of course, drove her friends crazy.

“And evidently, she also drove my father crazy because they were married and promptly had 11 children,” Colbert said, adding that Lorna made a loving home for her family.

She was trained as an actress when younger, and she was able to teach her children how to stage fall by pretending to faint on the kitchen floor.

Colbert also recalled how his mother’s declining health had made it difficult for her to remember things, but when she was asked her favourite prayer, she recited the child’s prayer, which she used to recite when she tucked her children to bed.

“We were the light of her life and let us know it till the end,” he said, his voice choking.

Colbert ended the show with another nod to Lorna, by fake fainting on the floor.

In February, he temporarily suspended the satirical news show when his mother fell ill.

Also last year, he thanks his mum on the show, saying, “The woman is a saint.”

And last week when Lorna’s passing was announced, the Colbert family had asked mourners that instead of sending flowers, they send donations to the Medical University of South Carolina Foundation.

Watch Colbert’s heartfelt tribute to his mother: