When Kathie Lee Gifford made an awkward gaffe on Wednesday’s episode of “Today”, she inadvertently proved that actor Martin Short is still very much in love with the woman he was with for over 30 years.

Gifford, who was interviewing Short during his press tour for “Madagascar 3”, asked about his wife and how they keep the sparks flying after so many years; the problem was, his wife, Nancy Dolman, died in 2010 from complications related to cancer. But Short didn’t skip a beat, talking about his wife as though she were still alive and showing that perhaps he still thinks of their marriage as if she was.

“You and Nancy have one of the greatest marriages in show business,” Kathie Lee said during the interview. “How many years now for you guys?”

“We’ve been together 36 years,” Short replied.

“But you’re still in love?”

“Madly in love,” he said.

Not only did Short manage to gloss over the embarrassing incident for Gifford’s sake, he also proved himself to be a loving husband despite the boundaries of death and time.

Short met his wife in 1972 when they were working in the same stage production; they fell in love and married in 1980. The actors later went on to appear on “SCTV” together before she retired to raise their family. They were married for 30 years before she succumbed to cancer in their home in 2010.

Short lost several family members at a young age; his brother died in a car accident, and his parents both passed away before Short turned 21. But he never viewed his life as tragic, preferring instead to focus on the good times he was able to have with them.

“It sounds like a tragic family, but it really isn’t,” he said. “My mother had cancer, and she had been ill and then in remission since I was 13. She was a remarkable person; both my parents were. So I never looked at it as if it was a tragedy – that I didn’t have them my whole life. You learn some sense of priorities. Our whole family took the attitude that if you have wonderful moments, don’t second-guess them, just enjoy them.”