If you don’t know Molly Shannon beyond the people she personifies in front of a camera, you would never guess that her life has been filled with immense tragedy. 

The actress, whose new memoir Hello Molly just hit shelves, is known for her characters on SNL, which she was on from 1995 to 2001, and more recently hilarious shows like The White Lotus and The Other Two. But before she was a superstar, she had to grapple with a lot of death at a very young age. 

Her memoir opens with a car crash in the summer of 1969 that claimed the lives of Shannon’s mom, Peggy Keating; her 25-year-old cousin, Fran; and her 3-year-old sister, Katie. Shannon was just 4 at the time. Her father, Jim Shannon, who had been drinking at a party in honor of a family member’s high school graduation, was driving the two hours home.

“There is no way to know exactly what happened that night, though my gut tells me he fell asleep at the wheel. But would he have fallen asleep without the drinking? It still keeps me up at night sometimes but, in the end, all that is relevant is that it changed our lives forever,” Shannon writes.

In her memoir, Shannon explores this event, her relationship with her father, and, of course, her career. Katie had Shannon on her podcast, Next Question to dive even further into her rollercoaster of a life. On this week’s episode, learn about all the turning points and pivotal relationships in Shannon’s life, leading up to her memoir and newest series, I Love That For You.