Kathy Bates Shocked to Learn She Actually Did Thank Her Mother for Her 'Misery' Oscars Win

After 33 years, Kathy Bates discovered the moment she won her Oscar for Best Actress in Misery in 1991 didn't go exactly as she had remembered it all these years.

Kathy shared in October 2024 that emotional feelings towards her mother had always tainted the momentous win. Thankfully, a recent interview put her at ease.

On Oct. 6, 2024, Kathy spoke to CBS Sunday Morning. During the conversation with journalist Ben Mankiewicz, she reflected on her Oscar win and became emotional as she remembered her mother, Bertye Kathleen Bates's words.

"She said, 'I don't know what all the fuss is about; you didn't discover the cure for cancer,'" Kathy recalled her mother saying.

During the interview, the actor said that she "forgot" to thank her mother in her Oscars acceptance speech. Her interviewer then confirmed to her, "You did thank her." When the Matlock star didn't believe him, he pulled out the beautiful footage of Kathy thanking her "mom at home" and then proceeding to thank her father, Langdon Doyle Bates, whom she hoped was "watching somewhere."

As Kathy watched the interview decades after experiencing it for herself, she covered her mouth in shock. She thanked Ben for playing the video back and wondered why she thought she hadn't thanked her mother. Kathy added she was "relieved" to see that wasn't the case and had been upset about the presumed flub due to her mother's impact on her life.

"She should've had my life," the actor said of her mother, who passed away in 1997. "When she died, I said 'come into me.' I wanted her spirit to come into me. Even though we had so many difficulties, I wanted her spirit to come into me and everything I was enjoying because of what she'd given up."