Jon Hamm found it "incredibly hard" watching his mother lose her battle with cancer.
The ‘Mad Men’ star was just 10 years old when his beloved parent – who divorced his father when he was two – was diagnosed with the disease and he couldn’t believe how much it affected her in a short space of time.
Speaking in the new UK issue of GQ magazine, he said: "I remember watching my father and my grandmother and grandfather completely lose their s**t.
"These people who were usually so composed, so put together, so adult. I just remember thinking, ‘This can’t be good.’
"It was very fast. It was incredibly hard to watch. Life really does a number on you. I watched my mum shrivel up, and at 35. She was this incredibly healthy, beautiful woman and by the time she died she weighed 80lb and looked like she was 70."
Jon then went to live with his father – who died a decade later – and says the toll the tragedy had on him was huge.
The 43-year-old actor explained: "He had been so alive my dad. He had this ability to have a conversation with anyone. He was interested in everyone.
"[Afterwards] he was just so much older, so much sadder. Life was harder."
Jon Hamm recalls mother’s ‘hard’ cancer battle
