Author and 2020 presidential hopeful Marianne Williamson, on the sidelines of Tuesday night’s Democratic debate, gave a surprisingly grim answer to an innocent question from a child reporter who asked if she had a pet.

She once had a cat, she responded -- and the cat died.

Williamson, whose focus on spiritual solutions to political problems and statements about conquering hate with love have won her a significant following, was interviewed by the young reporter in the post-debate “spin room” in Detroit.

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“Do you have a pet?” the budding scribe asked Williamson, as seen in a video tweeted by Associated Press reporter Philip Crowther.

“Do I have a pet? I had a cat and the cat died,” Williamson responded.

The video ends with a moment of awkward silence between Williamson and the reporter, identified by Crowther as Jeffrey Kraft with KidScoop Media.

The moment provided a key lesson -- that even the most basic of questions can lead to a cat-astrophic answer.

But Kraft recovered from the curveball of yarn thrown at him by the 2020 hopeful and followed up by asking what pet she would have in the White House. Williamson responded by saying it was a hard decision.

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“I love cats but I had a dog when I was a child,” she responded, this time omitting any reference to the dog's mortality. “The White House is very big. Theoretically, you can have a cat and a dog, because it's a big house.”