"She was an amazing woman. She was an inspiration to so many people. So many people loved her. She was a very determined artist," he said of Shelton, who died on Friday, during Monday's episode of his 'WTF with Marc Maron' podcast.
Marc Maron paid tribute to his partner Lynn Shelton during Monday's episode of the podcast WTF with Marc Maron.
Shelton, the director of independent films Humpday, Your Sister's Sister and My Effortless Brilliance, died on Friday at the age of 54 as a result of a previously unidentified blood disorder.
"She was my partner. She was my girlfriend. She was my friend," he said. "I loved her a lot. And she loved me and I knew that."
Maron shared that he had never loved anyone the way that he loved Shelton. "I was getting used to love in the way of being able to accept it and show it properly in an intimate relationship," he said. "I was able to exist in a state of self acceptance because of her love for me."
He explained that they originally thought she had strep throat. "She went immediately and got a COVID-19 test and it was negative and she met with her doctor online and we treated it as strep throat," Maron explained.
Maron convinced Shelton to see a doctor when her fever wouldn't go down on Thursday. "We were gonna go to the doctor for blood tests on Friday and then in the middle of the night I heard her collapse in the hallway on her way to the bathroom and I got up and she was on the floor and she couldn't move," he said through tears. "She was conscious, but delirious a bit."
He called 9-1-1 and the ambulance came to take her to the hospital. "That was the last time I saw her alive was on the floor being taken away," he said. "I don't want to go into details about that day, but they tried very hard at two hospitals that were amazing and they eventually had to let her go."
"They let me into the hospital after she died to spend some time with her," he continued. "And I told her I loved her, I touched her forehead and I left."
"She was an amazing woman. She was an inspiration to so many people. So many people loved her. She was a very determined artist," he said of Shelton. "Tremendous love for people. For her friends. For her son, Milo."
Maron added that he "couldn't explain" his relationship with Shelton, though "no one's got anything bad to say about Lynn Shelton."
To further pay tribute to Shelton, Maron played an interview of her first appearance on the podcast. "This is the first time I met her," he said of the 2015 interview. "I didn’t know her and she had been offered to be on the show before, but I was nervous because I knew she had some affiliation with my ex-wife."
"I needed to talk to her. I saw some of her movies. I wanted to talk to her. I was curious about her. I said, 'Okay, let's try it,'" Maron continued.
Both Shelton and Maron were in relationships with other people when they met. "When I had this conversation, it's undeniable that we connected. My connection with her is almost seamless," he said.
"I was definitely a better person when I was engaged with her. As a comic, as a guitar player, as a human, as a lover, as everything," he said. "I was better in Lynn Shelton's gaze."
Maron then played the 2015 interview, which featured Shelton discussing her upbringing in Seattle, directing television, her independent films and more.
The host said that he called his producer following the taping of the interview and said, "I don't know what just happened, man. I can see some alternate reality that I was with her. There is an alternate reality where I'm with that person."
"That alternate reality became the reality for the past year," he said.
Shelton and Maron later collaborated on the final season of the IFC comedy Maron and worked together on the Netflix series GLOW before they became a couple.
"I lit her up. She lit me up. And I loved talking to her. I loved everything about her," he continued, adding that she had a nice singing voice.
Maron concluded the episode by admitting that he wasn't sure if he should be talking about Shelton's death. "This is what I do and this is where I'm at and there's no right or wrong with grief," he said.
"The outpouring of love and support for me, for her family has been powerful and if there's anything she taught me, really, is that people do love me. That she loved me," he said. "There's nothing I can do about that and I realize I was learning how to accept it and I'm accepting it now. I accepted it from her. And I loved her and I'm happy you all loved her."
