Born to Larry King's former wife Annette Kaye, the 58-year-old Larry King Jr. wasn't part of his father's life for 33 years.
Some parents are involved in their child's life and some not, but to not have any interest at all in one's child is quite rare. Some parents prefer to focus on only work, letting their personal life take a backseat while making their way up the ladder. It's not fair on the children, and it's likely that they grow up resenting their parents.
Veteran talk show host Larry King, who has been married eight times to seven women, is going to be divorced eight times as well. The 86-year-old host of Larry King Now is also a dad to five kids. However, for the longest time, he hadn't acknowledged one of them even though he adopted an ex-wife's child. Unfortunately, King lost two of his kids within weeks of each other in 2020.
Two of his oldest kids, including adopted son Andy, 65, and only daughter, Chaia, 51, with ex-wife, former Playboy bunny Alene Akins, died on July 28 and August 20, respectively. While Andy had a heart attack, Chaia died from complications due to lung cancer, according to USA Today.
Of his remaining three kids, two are only 20 and 21 years old. His oldest living child, Larry King Jr., is 58. Born to King's former wife Annette Kaye, the 58-year-old wasn't part of his father's life for the longest time.
Kaye was the second wife of the talk show host and their marriage lasted less than a year. She was pregnant when they divorced but never told King. It took 33 years for the talk show host to acknowledge his son with Kaye even though he had an idea that he existed. "I knew there was a Larry King Jr. out there, I’d heard that, but I didn’t know he was mine. The marriage was very short and she told me if it’s a boy, I’m gonna name him Larry King Jr.," King told The Post in 2009. "Then I never heard again," he added.
When he was asked why he never tried to find out, he said, "My life was in a swirl then. I had other children. I know there was a doubt in my mind that I had a son."
He opened up about Larry Jr. when publicizing his memoir, Larry King: My Remarkable Journey. He said that he met his oldest child 15 years ago in 1994, when Kaye, who was dying from lung cancer, told him about his son. "I didn’t think about it," he said. "I never heard from him, never heard from his mother. Never heard. I sort of put it away until that day [Annette] called," he said.
15 years after he learned about his son was when he finally acknowledged him publicly. He was asked if he felt guilty about it, but King said, "In retrospect, I should’ve said to people, ‘You know, there’s a chance there’s a guy out there with my name who’s my son.' I couldn’t call it guilt . . . I don’t know what it is. Maybe a wonderment — but not guilt," he added.
On his talk show, he said that he had informed some of his family and friends about finding Larry Jr. but never openly acknowledged him before the book was published. In 2009, Larry Jr. was the head of King’s heart disease foundation in California. He has three children.
King has had a stormy life and it continues even now. The talk show host recently parted ways with his eighth wife, Shawn, with whom he had his longest marriage. They have two sons, Chance and Cannon. He filed for divorce from her in 2019 citing irreparable differences, reported People. They have had a turbulent marriage in the past decade.
In 2010, King filed for divorce from Shawn after the National Enquirer reported that his then-wife had an affair with one of their sons’ baseball coaches, Hector Penate. The coach also admitted to the relationship but the celebrity couple decided to stay together. In 2016, King was troubled over their marriage again since Shawn had been having another affair. "It’s true, and Larry is completely embarrassed and anguished by all of this," a source told People. "He doesn’t know what to do," they added.
Finally, in 2019, Shawn said that she will go along with what King wants and won't fight him about the divorce.
References:
https://nypost.com/2009/05/21/meet-larry-king-jr/
https://people.com/tv/larry-kings-wives-and-marriages-a-history/
