Selena Gomez Put Martin Short’s Daughter’s Name on an Award, and He Came to Present It

At the fourth Rare Impact Fund Benefit, Selena Gomez unveiled the Katherine Short Legacy Award and Martin Short walked onstage to present it. His words, hers, and where the nearly $3 million goes.

October 16, 2026 6 min read

The story

Selena Gomez in Prada at the fourth Rare Impact Fund Benefit, Hollywood Palladium, October 14, 2026 Photo: Selena Gomez / Instagram

Updated October 16, 2026.

Selena Gomez told E! News on Wednesday that she had made a joke to her team: she felt more nervous about this night than about her own wedding. I believe her, and not because of the 500 guests or the two Prada gowns. The fourth Rare Impact Fund Benefit, held October 14 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, raised close to $3 million for youth mental health. The part that will outlast the receipts was quiet: a new award with a friend’s daughter’s name on it, and the friend walking onstage to present it eight months after he lost her.

The award, in Selena’s words

“There is one part of tonight that means a lot to me,” Gomez said from the stage, as People reports. The Katherine Short Legacy Award is named for Martin Short’s daughter, a clinical social worker who died in February at 42. “Katherine was a social worker who devoted her own career to helping people through some of their hardest points,” Gomez said. “This award will carry her name forward by honoring people who have made that same kind of commitment to their communities.”

Martin Short and Selena Gomez on the carpet before the award was presented for the first time Photo: E! News, Martin Short Says Pain of Daughter’s Death “Will Always Be Present” (still)

Then the line that explains it: “Marty has been my friend for many years, and I know how deeply he loves his family. I’m very grateful that he’s here tonight to help us present it for the first time.”

The two have shared a set on Only Murders in the Building since 2021, and Short emceed her first benefit in 2023. Here is my read: this was not a celebrity booking a celebrity. It was a colleague making room for a friend’s grief on her biggest night of the year.

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What Martin Short said

Short, 76, joined her at the microphone. “It has been a very difficult year for me, needless to say,” he said, per People. “It has been the heartbreak of our family, as you can imagine.” He said Katherine “fought for so long with extreme mental health issues” and that “she did the best she could until she couldn’t.”

What struck me was where he took it next: he made an argument. Mental health, he said, “is simply an illness, not to be hidden in the shadows or perceived as a family embarrassment.” He set it beside the disease that took his wife, Nancy Dolman, in 2010. “Mental health and cancer, which took my wife, for example, are both diseases,” he said, as Page Six reports. “They are diseases, and sometimes diseases are terminal.”

Martin Short arriving at the Hollywood Palladium, eight months after losing his daughter Katherine Photo: Page Six, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, Martin Short and more step out for Rare Impact Fund Benefit (still)

He borrowed a line he credited to Dolly Parton, “Grief is love with no place to go,” and then found a place for it: “My pain about losing my daughter will always be present in my heart.” Of Gomez, he said she is “one of the most brilliant women in the world” and “I’ve learned so much from Selena by working with her.” The first award went to La Familia Counseling Center, a Sacramento nonprofit recognized for more than five decades of work in its community.

If you or someone you know is struggling, in the US you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

The money, and where it goes

The headline number is the nearly $3 million from paddle raises and a live auction. Gomez quoted a bigger one: “we are so fortunate to have raised 30 million plus already for this fund.” Rare Impact launched in 2020 alongside Rare Beauty, takes 1% of the brand’s sales, and has a stated goal of $100 million for organizations that expand mental health access for young people. “We created this fund before we even sold a single product, so this has always been our mission,” she told Billboard. And: “I honestly get more excited about this than most events I’m invited to.”

Sean Hayes emceed. Leon Bridges and Bella Kay performed. Gomez arrived in a custom red Prada gown with a peplum waist, styled by Erin Walsh, and changed later into a sand-colored Prada column dress scattered with crystals. Two gowns for a charity dinner is a lot. For the night you have been planning since August, I would argue it is exactly right.

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A phone call from home

Benny Blanco was not photographed on the carpet. Gomez, who married Blanco on September 27, 2025, told E! News how he showed up anyway. “He called me this morning after he left the house,” she said. His message: “You’re really changing people and I’m so proud of you and I love you.” Asked whether a year of marriage still holds surprises, she laughed it off: “We know everything. At this point, we do.”

I find that the most relatable detail of the whole evening. Sometimes the best thing a spouse can do on your big night is call from the car.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DcvQUcREWXx/

My take

A gala is designed to make a number go up. This one did its job: nearly $3 million in a night, past $30 million in six years. But Gomez did something harder than fundraising. She gave a grieving friend a reason to stand up in front of 500 people and say the word “illness” out loud, by putting his daughter’s name on something that will be handed out again next year. She said she was more nervous than at her wedding. Having read his words twice, I think she had the order right.

Backstage in the second gown of the night, in a frame from the reel Gomez posted the next morning Photo: Selena Gomez / Instagram (reel still)

Sources

Fact check

Rumor / Reality

The rumor

Whether Benny Blanco attended: he was not photographed on the carpet and coverage does not place him in the room; Gomez only described his morning phone call.
The exact total raised: outlets say 'nearly' or 'roughly' $3 million; no precise figure has been released.
The guest count of about 500 comes from event coverage, not from the organizers.
Martin Short's full speech: outlets quote it in slightly different fragments; we quote People and Page Six as published.

What we know

The benefit took place October 14, 2026, at the Hollywood Palladium; paddle raises and a live auction brought in nearly $3 million (Billboard).
The Katherine Short Legacy Award was presented for the first time, by Gomez and Martin Short, to La Familia Counseling Center (Billboard, People).
Katherine Short, 42, a clinical social worker, died in February 2026; her family's statement called her 'beloved by all' (People).
Rare Impact Fund launched in 2020, is funded in part by 1% of Rare Beauty sales, has raised over $30 million and targets $100 million (PR Newswire, August 24, 2026).
Sean Hayes emceed; Leon Bridges and Bella Kay performed (PR Newswire, Billboard).

Editorial Note This article is based on publicly available information and fan observation. We do not make medical diagnoses, confirm unverified rumors as fact, or intend to body-shame anyone. Celebrity appearance changes are covered with respect for the individuals involved.

Written by

Maya Hart Relationships & wellbeing

“Famous families are still families.”