Shortly after news of Larry King’s death broke on Saturday, January 23, tributes to the longtime TV host began pouring in. Piers Morgan, Wendy Williams and Craig Ferguson were among the celebrities who honored him.
“With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host, and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles,” a statement shared via his Twitter account on Saturday read.
The network noted that the broadcaster’s interviews through the years and the acclaim he received as a result “stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent.” King “always viewed his interview subjects as the true stars of his programs, and himself as merely an unbiased conduit between the guest and audience.” As such, his sit-downs “are consistently referenced by media outlets around the world and remain part of the historical record of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.”
The statement concluded: “Ora Media sends our condolences to his surviving children Larry, Jr., Chance, Cannon and the entire King family. Funeral arrangements and a memorial service will be announced later in coordination with the King family, who ask for their privacy at this time.”
King was hospitalized in Los Angeles earlier this month after contracting COVID-19.
The Larry King Now host struggled with health issues for years, including a major heart attack which led to quadruple bypass surgery in 1987, lung cancer in 2017, a stroke in March 2019 that left him in a coma for “a couple of weeks,” an angina attack the following month and a blood-flow issue in November 2020.
King is survived by his estranged wife, Shawn King — whom he filed for divorce from in 2019 — their two sons, Chance, 21, and Cannon, 20, and son Larry, Jr., 59, whom he shared with ex-wife Annette Kaye.
Us Weekly confirmed in August 2020 that two of the radio host’s children died within three weeks of each other. His son Andy suffered a heart attack in July 2020 at age 65, while his daughter, Chaia, succumbed to lung cancer the following month at age 51.
“Both of them were good and kind souls and they will be greatly missed,” he wrote via Facebook in August 2020. “Losing them feels so out of order. No parent should have to bury a child.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see reactions to King’s death.
