Larry King's wild love life with 8 marriages, long-lost son and divorce at 85
Talk show host Larry King will be remembered for his straight-talking interview style, but his life off screen was incredibly dramatic.
King – who died today aged 87 – was married eight times, including twice to the same woman.
He also had a son he didn’t meet for 30 years, and was going through a divorce in his 80s.
Larry first tied the knot at the age of 19 way back in 1952 when he swapped vows with his high-school sweetheart, Freda Miller.
The marriage is said to have been annulled the following year after both Larry and Freda’s parents objected.
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The American talk show host then married second wife, Annette Kaye, in 1961, who gave birth to his first child, 58-year-old Larry King Jr.
Larry’s marriage to Annette lasted only a matter of months, with the coupled divorcing in the same year that they married.
He did not meet his eldest child, Larry King Jr, until he was in his 30s, with Annette giving birth to the boy after their divorce.
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Wife number three was a Playboy Bunny star named Alene Akins whom Larry wed in 1961 – and he adopted her son, Andy in 1962, who died last year.
While this marriage ended in 1963, the couple reconciled and re-married in 1967.
Together, the couple welcomed their daughter Chaia, who passed away in 2020, while this second attempt in marriage also ended in divorce in 1972.
Chaia and Andy’s mother, Alene, passed away in 2017, with Larry saying of the death at the time: “So very saddened over the passing of Alene Akins, who died peacefully with our children Chaia and Andy by her side. She was a grand lady.”
Between the two times Larry was married to Alene, he managed to squeeze in his fourth marriage, to Mary Francis “Mickey” Stuphin in 1963 – although Mickey subsequently divorced the star in 1967 before he married Alene for the second time.
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Following the collapse of round two of his marriage to Alene, Larry moved on to marry production assistant and teacher Sharon Lepore in 1976 – but wife number five was divorced in 1983.
He then met businesswoman Julie Alexander in 1989, who he asked to be his sixth wife soon after.
They split in 1991, and their divorce was finalized in 1992.
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He then married singer, actress, and TV host Shawn Southwick in 1997 – and together they have sons Chance, 21, and Connor, 20.
The couple filed for divorce in 2010 – but reconciled.
However, they filed for divorce again in August 2019 – and the case was ongoing at the time of his death, but Shawn was still technically wife number seven.
Reflecting on his chaotic love life during an interview with Anderson Cooper in 2009, while still married to Shawn, Larry declared: “I don’t really regret it. I love being in love.”
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He continued: “In retrospect, I only loved three. The current, of course, and two previous. Beyond that, I think it was just – I never lived with anyone. I don’t even think I spent the night over at anyone’s house.”
He added: “I don’t have any regrets. Some great kids were brought out of them.”
The talk show legend had nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren as a result of his numerous marriages.
