Veteran TV host Larry King passed away last week (January 23) at the age of 87 after contracting COVID-19 over the holidays, but as it turns out, it wasn't the virus that claimed his life.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, King's wife Shawn King revealed that the television icon had succumbed to an "unrelated infection" weeks after he was initially hospitalized for coronavirus.
"It was an infection, it was sepsis," she told ET. "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."
She added: "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."
King's widow told ET that her last words to her husband were "I love you," and that among his final exchanges, "He wanted to make sure I heard was, 'I love you, take care of the boys.'"
Shawn and Larry were able to FaceTime their two sons Cannon and Chase from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles before he passed.
"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," Shawn King said. "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."
Shawn was King's seventh wife. They were married for 22 years before they filed for divorce back in 2010. They got back together before filing a second time in 2019, but reconciled their personal differences and remained close up until he passed. Neither divorce was ever finalized.
King is survived by three children, Cannon, Chase and Larry Jr. Two of King's five children, Andy and Chaia, died in 2020.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, King's wife Shawn King revealed that the television icon had succumbed to an "unrelated infection" weeks after he was initially hospitalized for coronavirus.
"It was an infection, it was sepsis," she told ET. "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."
She added: "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."
King's widow told ET that her last words to her husband were "I love you," and that among his final exchanges, "He wanted to make sure I heard was, 'I love you, take care of the boys.'"
Shawn and Larry were able to FaceTime their two sons Cannon and Chase from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles before he passed.
"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," Shawn King said. "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."
Shawn was King's seventh wife. They were married for 22 years before they filed for divorce back in 2010. They got back together before filing a second time in 2019, but reconciled their personal differences and remained close up until he passed. Neither divorce was ever finalized.
King is survived by three children, Cannon, Chase and Larry Jr. Two of King's five children, Andy and Chaia, died in 2020.
