Larry King‘s wife, Shawn King, has revealed his cause of death as well as the final words she spoke to him.
The iconic television host died Saturday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 87, leaving behind three living children — Larry Jr., Chance and Cannon — as well as his wife, Shawn.
No cause of death was given at the time of his passing, but he had been hospitalized with a COVID-19 infection weeks prior, reports said. In a new interview, his wife revealed the broadcaster did not die from the coronavirus.
“It was an infection, it was sepsis,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “Well, he was finally ready to go, I will tell you that. You know, he never wanted to go but his sweet little body was just, it had just been hit so many times with so many things and once we heard the word COVID, all of our hearts just sunk. But he beat it, you know, he beat it, but it did take its toll and then the unrelated infection finally is what took him, but boy, he was not gonna go down easily.”
Shawn said King’s mind “wasn’t right” and his “body was going,” noting it was a difficult thing to witness. The actress and King were in the middle of a divorce at the time of his passing. King filed for divorce in August 2019 after 22 years of marriage.
Larry King did not die of the coronavirus despite previously being hospitalized for contracting it, his wife, Shawn King, said.
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She confirmed the pair’s divorce was “never finalized.”
“In my heart, I didn’t think it was really going to happen and it never did. We were partners in every sense of the way, in business, and in, well, first in our familiy and then in business. But we’re a close family. You know, family is the most important thing, and God,” she said.
Shawn also touched on King’s final moments in the hospital. She said she and King’s kids were able to FaceTime him.
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“And it was hard for him to talk, but the one message that he wanted to make sure I heard was, ‘I love you, take care of the boys,'” she said.
King’s family laid him to rest in a private funeral this week. She said she still feels his strong presence around her.
Larry King and Shawn King were in the middle of a divorce at the time of his death. The iconic TV host died on Saturday at the age of 87.
(Greg Doherty/FilmMagic)
“I can very, very distinctly feel him around me and around us. I’m sure he is so happy at the coverage that his passing has gotten. … Larry was a little boy in so many ways. And he used to always, you probably have 30 different soundbites of him saying, ‘I pinch myself every day. I can’t believe this is my life.’ And he really, really did. So all of these beautiful tributes, you know, I’m sure he’s thrilled, and the family, we’re all just so happy and so proud of him for all the wonderful things that he did. He did a lot.”
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King was married a total of eight times throughout his life, to seven different women. Shawn was his last marriage and his longest.
Just months before his death, King lost two of his five adult children when Andy, 65, and Chaia, 51, died within weeks of each other. Andy had a heart attack, while Chaia had been battling lung cancer.
