Dustin Diamond’s girlfriend, Tash, said she was “heartbroken” after the “Saved by the Bell” actor died earlier this week.
“He was the love of my life. We plan a future together and talk a lot about having children, ”the 39-year-old pharmacy technician told the Daily Mail, adding that she last spoke to him the day before his death. “Even though he was struggling to breathe and had trouble speaking, he was able to say to me, ‘I love you’, I told him that I loved him back.”
Diamond died at age 44 on Monday, just weeks after being diagnosed with stage 4 small cell lung cancer.
According to Tash, Diamond was discharged from the hospital on Monday to his friend Jules’ Ft. Myers, Florida, home for palliative care. While Jules and the hospice worker were preparing their room, Tash arrived and found Diamond in the front room, not breathing.
His best friend, Dan Block, explained that last week he managed to speak, but on Sunday he could barely breathe.
“We are not sure when Dustin actually died, whether he died at Jules’ house or whether he died on the way after leaving the hospital,” Block told the outlet. “It was terrible … we were all crying that he was gone. We knew that he was suffering and not now ”.
Block said Diamond did not want a headstone or a service and will be cremated next week.
“Dustin was scared, he called me often crying, saying he didn’t want to die,” explained his friend. “He was in a lot of pain. Once, on the phone, he said to me: ‘Find a new body for me, I don’t want to die’ ”.
Block also described a call that Diamond received in his last days from actor Todd Bridges of “Diff’rent Strokes”.
According to Block, Bridges said to Diamond, “Hey, man, I love you, brother, I’ll see you again someday soon.”
Block said Bridges was the last person to speak to Diamond besides him and Tash.
Reflecting on better days, Tash shared exactly how his dark relationship with Diamond came to be through Facebook.
“We had friends in common. One day I received a message from him, something like, ‘Hello, how are you?’ I didn’t think it was him, but I thought it might be a troll, so I decided to play along.
“I wasn’t sure if I was talking to the real Dustin Diamond until I actually met him in person and we just clicked.”