Larry King's estranged wife Shawn recalls their last words, says 'every one of us' wore suspenders at funeral
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Larry King's estranged wife Shawn King is speaking out after the broadcast legend's death Saturday at the age of 87.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight published Wednesday, Shawn revealed her last words to her husband before he died were "I love you."
"We were able to do FaceTime in the hospital," she said. "It was hard for him to talk, but the one message that he wanted to make sure I heard: 'I love you. Take care of the boys.'"
The couple married in 1997 and had two sons together: Cannon, 20, and Chance, 21. Though King filed to divorce Shawn in 2019, she told ET that their divorce was never finalized.
Shawn also said that, though King was hospitalized for COVID-19 in late December, the disease was not what killed him.
"In the end it wasn't COVID," she said. "His sweet little body had just been hit so many times with so many things. Once we heard the word 'COVID,' all of our hearts just sunk. But he beat it. But it did take its toll, and then the infection, unrelated infection, finally is what took him."
According to ET, Shawn said her late husband was laid to rest in an intimate ceremony in Los Angeles. In honor of the talk show host's iconic look, she said everyone at the funeral wore King's signature suspenders.
"I'm still processing, as are the boys. The whole family is," she said. "We wore Larry's suspenders, every one of us. It was beautiful."
According to Ora Media, a production company King founded with Mexican media mogul Carlos Slim, King died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. His three surviving children mourned him in a family statement shared Saturday night on his Twitter account.
"We are heartbroken over our father's death," the statement read, signed by Larry King Jr., Chance King and Cannon King. "The world knew Larry King as a great broadcaster and interviewer, but to us he was 'dad.'"
King was married eight times to seven different women, including Alene Akins, whom he married and divorced twice. In addition to his sons with Shawn, the veteran TV and radio host had three other children. Two of them, Andy and Chaia King, died within weeks of each other in 2020.
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Contributing: Gary Levin, Cydney Henderson
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Larry King's estranged wife Shawn recalls final exchange
