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Catherine O’Hara, celebrated for her illustrious career, always regarded motherhood as her “most important role.” In a 2020 interview with Variety, the late actress extolled the joys of raising her sons, Matthew and Luke.
The beloved “Schitt’s Creek” star, who passed away on January 30, 2026, had her two sons with her husband, production designer Bo Welch.
Matthew and Luke chose to follow the Hollywood path of their parents, albeit quietly, as they kept a low profile and seldom accompanied their mother to red carpet events.
Notably, they were absent during O’Hara’s last public appearance, which took place four months before she succumbed to a “brief illness.”
They were not present for the “Home Alone” star’s final public appearance, four months before O’Hara’s passing following a “brief illness.”
Get to know O’Hara’s family members below.
Bo Welch
O’Hara and Welch met while filming “Beetlejuice” in 1987 — and director Tim Burton encouraged the latter to ask out his future wife.
“It didn’t even occur to me that I was even supposed to talk to actors,” Welch recalled in a 2015 Uproxx interview (via PopSugar). “But since Tim told me to, I did, and then we dated and we’re married and here we are today.”
O’Hara told “Kelly Clarkson Show” viewers the same story in February 2024, noting, “He was talking to me every day. It was like high school. … I [was] grousing to Tim Burton, and he said, ‘Let me see what I can do.’”
Welch subsequently asked O’Hara to go to a swap meet with the art department.
The Emmy winner then “moved for love,” as she told the New Yorker in 2019, relocating to Los Angeles to be with Welch.
The couple wed in April 1992, with Burton giving the newlyweds a private tour of the Vatican as their gift.
Matthew Welch
O’Hara and Welch became parents in 1994 when son Matthew was born.
The infant made his red carpet debut at the opening party for Burton’s photo exhibit, The Museum of Unnatural History, that October.
Matthew’s next — and only other — red carpet appearance was at the “Cat in the Hat” premiere in November 2003 alongside brother Luke.
O’Hara gave rare insight into the siblings’ “very funny” personalities in 2007 Toronto Star interview, revealing, “The older one does Warners cartoon bits, really old-fashioned, cheap-a– funny vaudeville stuff. And the little one does word play.”
Luke Welch
Luke, born in 1997, and his older brother both work in the entertainment industry — but behind the camera, like their dad.
In 2020, O’Hara told Vanity Fair that one of her boys was a set dresser on “Schitt’s Creek,” while the other worked in set construction.
She shared with “Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen” viewers four years later that one of her children was a set dresser for Season 2 of “The Last of Us.”