Once happily married, Shawn King was blindsided by Larry's decision. She attributes this major life-changing choice to his health scare in 2019.
Iconic talk show host Larry King, 86, suffered a stroke in 2019 and came to the realization that he wanted to be happy for the rest of his life. He also realized that he was not afraid of death. However, what ensured his happiness was divorce. Married eight times to seven women, King has lived a long and colorful life and he blames his many marriages to the fact that when he was growing up, people in love got married. There was no living together.
However, ensuring happiness doesn't mean that you hurt another person with whom you shared your life for 22 years. The Larry King Show host's latest and longest marriage was to Shawn King, with whom he has two sons, Chance, 21 and Cannon, 20.
"I got married a lot," he told PEOPLE. "But in my head, I’m not a marrying guy. When I grew up, nobody lived together. If you fell in love, you got married. And so I married the ones that I loved. But what I loved at 20 is not what I loved at 30 and what I loved at 30 is not what I loved at 40."
After having a stroke, he reflected on life and realized, "When there are moments of unhappiness in a marriage, you can overcome it at 40, but at my age, it became a lot. I wanted to be happy. Separating was of course difficult. But there is nothing worse than arguing."
To his wife, however, the divorce filing was a shock. Shawn had said to Daily Mail TV that it had "blindsided" her. The former actress and singer, 60, said that she doesn't want him to be seen as some "villain" but hinted that his decision could be because of the stroke. "I was crushed, I had no idea that this was coming, it hurt yeah. I was totally blindsided. He's going through a lot right now... his health issues, that can really shake you to your core, it shook me to my core to see him so vulnerable and he doesn't remember two solid weeks of time. It's life, it's real, it's not fun," she said.
She only found out that he had filed for divorce after receiving a call from a reporter, she said. "I'm sad, I never expected to be at this place in my life, in our lives and have this happen in such a public way. I don't think, again I'm not in Larry's head, I refuse to believe that he intended to humiliate me. It's strange, I can't quite wrap my head around it, but it is what it is... it hurts," she added.
There were also rumors that her sons had convinced their father to take the decision. "They've been raised in the entertainment business, in the public eye, so they've been around it, but they've never been the subject of the headlines. And it was very upsetting to them to have things attributed to them that were not true and so much so that they went to their social media platforms and set the record straight, but initially, it was really hard on them," said their mom.
Meanwhile, King acknowledged that while he hasn't cheated on any of his wives he has the tendency to prioritize his career. "I used to say if CNN called with an emergency and my wife called with an emergency, I’d call CNN back first," he told USAToday. He also said that their age difference and religious differences are other reasons why he wants to end it with Shawn.
"(Shawn) is a very religious Mormon and I’m an agnostic atheist so that eventually causes little problems," he said. The 86-year-old looks back at his long marriage with her positively and wishes her "nothing but the best." "I feel grateful for everything," he added. "Life is truly a gift," he added.
Shawn has said that she wouldn't be fighting his wish to divorce since doctors told her that he is dying.
References:
https://people.com/tv/larry-king-opens-up-about-his-near-fatal-stroke/
