What happened to Sarah Silverman’s brother? Comedian makes shocking revelation about sibling’s death

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What happened to Sarah Silverman’s brother (Image via Getty)

American stand-up comedian, Sarah Silverman, famously known as an ex-cast member and writer for the Saturday Night Live show, recently shared the real story behind her baby brother's passing away in an interview with Rolling Stone.

Jeffrey, her baby brother, had died when he was just three months old. The comedian, now aged 54, is all set to release her new show Post Mortem. The show talks about the death of her parents, Beth Ann Halpin and Donald Silverman.

In a revelation that challenged the narrative she grew up believing, Sarah Silverman shared that her infant brother’s death was not an accident. But a death caused in relation to her own grandfather, and he may bear the responsibility for it.

According to her interview with Rolling Stone, the comedian recalled being told that Jeffrey, her baby brother, whom she never got to know, had died when he was just three months old from accidental suffocation in his crib. However, Silverman revealed that her father later told her that his own father, her grandfather, had shaken the child.

"The story was that something happened with the crib, and Jeffrey's little body slid and he got suffocated. But if you look back, there was never a lawsuit with the crib company or anything," she shared.

Sarah Silverman shares late father’s shocking confession about her brother’s death

Netflix's "Maestro" Los Angeles Photo Call (Image via Getty)
Netflix's "Maestro" Los Angeles Photo Call (Image via Getty)

Silverman originally wrote about her early life in her 2010 autobiography The Bedwetter, which she adapted into a stage musical in 2022. This latest revelation, however, had not been shared publicly until now.

In a report by the Mirror, Sarah Silverman revealed that she got to know the truth later in life, when her dad confessed the story during his final days in 2023. Donald Silverman told his daughter that he believed his father, Max, had caused the death of Jeffrey, Sarah's infant brother, in a fit of rage.

"I always felt that he was crying or something, and my dad shook him. He shook him in a rage and killed him," Donald reportedly told her.
"As soon as he said it, it was like: 'Of course, that’s what happened,'" Sarah Silverman added.

The tragedy dates back to when Sarah's parents, Donald and Beth Ann, had gone on vacation, leaving Jeffrey in the care of Max and Rose, Sarah’s grandparents. In her 2010 memoir, Sarah Silverman wrote that both her parents believed at the time that the baby had suffocated.

According to the story, she shared in her book, Max later said he had been the one checking on Jeffrey during the night due to Rose’s hearing difficulties. He claimed he found the baby unresponsive the next morning.

The year before he passed away, Donald Silverman saw his daughter’s musical five times in a row during its Manhattan run in 2022. A particularly jarring moment in the show featured a young Sarah joking with her grandmother about her baby brother Jeffrey’s death, leaving many in the audience stunned into silence. After the fifth performance, Sarah Silverman says her father came backstage and finally revealed to her what really happened to Jeffrey.

While discussing her father’s personality during the Rolling Stone interview, Sarah Silverman recalled a striking example of his tendency to disclose intense truths in casual settings.

“We were playing poker once, and he just dropped in that one of the priests at his school fondled him. I was like ‘Dad!’ He was always dropping bombs,” she shared.

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Edited by Anshika Jain