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 passed away over the weekend at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles at the age of 87, leaving behind his three children: Larry Jr, Chance, and Cannon – as well as his wife, Shawn.
At the time of his death, no cause of death was given but it was suspected his passing was due to COVID-19 as he was hospitalised with the virus a few weeks prior.
But now in a new interview, his wife revealed the broadcaster did not die from coronavirus.
“It was an infection, it was sepsis,” Shawn, 61, 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.
During the time of his passing, the actress and King were in the middle of a divorce, with King filing for divorce in August 2019 after 22 years of marriage.
She confirmed the pair’s divorce was “never finalised”.
“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 family 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.
“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.
“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,” she said.
“Larry was a little boy in so many ways. And he used to always, you probably have 30 different sound bites 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.”
King was married a total of eight times through his life, to seven different women. Shawn was his last marriage and his longest.
This article originally appeared on Over60.