Waterworks were flowing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Wednesday, when actor Denzel Washington broke down while discussing his mother, Lennis Washington, who died in June of this year at the age of 97.

Colbert brought up a quote he had heard Washington say about a mother being a boy’s first true love, and he asked Washington how he is honoring that love with his work. That’s when the Oscar winner was hit with some unexpected emotions.

“A mother is a son’s first true love. A son, especially that first son, is a mother’s last true love,” Washington began. “That’s— I’m getting choked up. Sorry.”

Washington, who stars in the new Joel Coen film The Tragedy of Macbeth, went on to say that his mother was there for everything throughout his life and career, but that now “she went home,” before asking Colbert for a tissue.

The emotions of the moment caught up with viewers at home, who took to Twitter with comments like, “Crying with Denzel Washington tonight was not something I had on my agenda.”

After sitting for a moment in an attempt to gather himself, Washington then told Colbert that he didn’t even cry at his mother’s funeral. And when the host asked why he thinks that is, the answer was a perfect way to lighten the mood.

“I don’t know. I guess I saved it up for you,” Washington said, laughing. “For crying out loud!”

But Washington, who is the father of actor John David Washington, did choose a pretty good shoulder to cry on, considering Colbert experienced the tragedy of losing his father and two of his older brothers in a plane crash when he was just ten-years-old, and also lost his own mother back in 2013.

So when Washington closed his interview by saying, “Hug them, love them,” Colbert simply said, “I know it well.”