Bo Welch’s Heartbreaking Tribute Breaks Silence on Catherine O’Hara’s Secret Final Battle — Inside Their Private Love Story and Reclusive Final Days Hidden From the World, Leaving Fans Shattered and in Awe”!

Catherine O’Hara was married to Bo Welch for over three decades.

The beloved actress — who died in January 2026 at the age of 71 — met the production designer when she starred in Tim Burton’s 1988 classic Beetlejuice. At the urging of the acclaimed director, Welch asked the Schitt’s Creek alum on a date, and the rest is history.

Born and raised in Canada, O’Hara moved to California to pursue her relationship with Welch. “I moved to L.A. to be with him,” she told The New Yorker in January 2019. “Yeah, I moved for love.”

Welch and O’Hara eventually got married on April 25, 1992. They welcomed their first son, Matthew, in 1994 and their second son, Luke, in 1997.

Over the years, Welch has worked on a number of iconic films, including Burton’s 1990 Edward Scissorhands, starring Johnny Depp, and the original Men in Black, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.

So, who is Catherine O’Hara’s husband? Here’s everything to know about Bo Welch and his relationship with the Home Alone star.

He is an Oscar-nominated production designer

Welch is an Oscar- and Emmy-nominated production designer, best known for his work on Edward Scissorhands, Men in Black and A Little Princess. He grew up in Bucks County, Penn., per Below the Line, and had his big break as a production designer in 1985’s The Color Purple. His work on the film landed him his first of four Oscar nominations.

Welch made his directorial debut in 2003 with The Cat in the Hat. He also directed five episodes of A Series of Unfortunate Events, the same series that landed him his first Primetime Emmy nomination. He has additionally done production design for Batman Returns, Schmigadoon! and Thor.

“If you have to wake up in the morning to do something, I can’t think of anything better [than production design],” he told Below the Line in July 2022. “You can do this job for 100 years, and I swear every time you come to this part of production design, picking colors, it’s like you’ve just started this career. It is so difficult.”

He and O’Hara met on the set of Beetlejuice 

Welch and O’Hara met while she was starring in Beetlejuice as Delia Deetz. Burton hired Welch to work on the film’s production design, which at the time was the second movie he had ever worked on.

“It was just thrilling at that point in my career. Second movie, and this was it. I had never seen anything like it,” Welch told UPROXX. “It didn’t have the pressure of a third episode of a franchise movie. So, all of that was great.”

“My memories of Beetlejuice are very fond, of course,” he added. “Not to mention, I met my wife, who was in it.”

While working on the movie, Burton learned that O’Hara had a crush on Welch. Burton helped the pair get together by arranging a trip to a swap meet with the film’s art department, he told PEOPLE.

“I was grouching to Tim Burton about how this guy was talking to me all the time and never asking me out,” O’Hara recalled to InStyle in January 2018. “We had a break between filming in Los Angeles and on location, and in that time, Tim told Bo that he should ask me out.”

They shot the exteriors of the Beetlejuice house in Vermont, and that was the day that Welch asked O’Hara out, which was admittedly her favorite part of filming the movie.

“Our first day of shooting at the house was the day that Bo finally asked me out, so that’s what I see when I look at the scenes we shot there,” she added. “Matchmaking Tim Burton!”

O’Hara moved to Los Angeles to be with him

After meeting Welch on the set of Beetlejuice, O’Hara was smitten. The pair started dating after filming wrapped. O’Hara admitted to The New Yorker in 2019 that she moved to L.A. after Beetlejuice to be with Welch.

“I was in Beetlejuice, and the production designer, Bo Welch, was very attractive, and he finally asked me out,” she said. “We went on location at the end of the movie, and we started dating. I moved to L.A. to be with him. Yeah, I moved for love.”

O’Hara and Welch tied the knot on April 25, 1992.

They share two sons 

O’Hara and Welch welcomed two sons together, Matthew and Luke. Two years after they were married, they welcomed Matthew in 1994. Luke was born roughly three years later in 1997. While Matthew and Luke were raised in Canada, they have followed in the footsteps of their parents and have taken on jobs in Hollywood.

During their adolescence, Matthew and Luke were very creative kids.

“Matthew and Luke … They’re very funny, and we encourage it,” O’Hara told the Toronto Star in June 2007. “The older one does Warners cartoon bits, really old-fashioned, cheap-ass funny vaudeville stuff. And the little one does word play.”

Matthew and Luke made their way into the entertainment industry and have worked in set dressing and construction. They additionally worked with O’Hara during her time on Schitt’s Creek.

O’Hara told PEOPLE in January 2024 that she once had her own brief Home Alone moment with her two sons in New York on the subway.

“We were in New York once; I think it was New York. Bo and I got on the subway, we turned around, the doors are closing, and they weren’t on,” she said. “I screamed and people screamed with me. Everybody joined in.”

Luckily, Matthew and Luke made it on the train and weren’t separated from their parents. “It makes me sick to think what could have happened,” O’Hara added.

He and O’Hara had a viral moment during the 2021 Golden Globes

At the 2021 Golden Globes Awards, O’Hara received the award for Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy for her work in Schitt’s Creek. Because the awards ceremony was held during the height of the pandemic, she gave her acceptance speech virtually with her husband by her side.

As she spoke, Welch played audio of an audience applauding. When she neared the end of her speech, he played music to signal O’Hara to wrap up. “Seriously?” she jokingly said to Welch at the time.

He and O’Hara had an interesting visit to the Vatican as newlyweds

After O’Hara and Welch got married, Burton gave them tickets for a private tour of the Vatican.

“It was a very inside kind of deal,” O’Hara said on The Kelly Clarkson Show.

During the trip, the priest who was showing them around was scolded.

“Ok, so a priest took us around — he got yelled at at one point,” O’Hara recalled. “I wish I spoke Italian, but he was definitely getting yelled at by another priest because we were in the pope’s closet, like, looking at garments and stuff. It was crazy.”

Everything turned out to be fine for O’Hara and Welch, and they ended their tour in a mini museum where gifts given to the Vatican are held. “And this priest is just letting us open cases, and pretending to put a crown inside Bo’s backpack, taking pictures,” she added.

He supported O’Hara at the Venice Film Festival

In August 2024, Welch joined O’Hara at the Venice Film Festival for the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premiere. The actress turned heads in a gothic-inspired gown by Oscar de la Renta, while Welch complemented his wife in a classic black suit.