Larry King, who died on Saturday at the age of 87, was known almost as much for his multiple marriages and divorces as for being an icon of broadcasting. He was married eight times to seven different women. He was only 18 years old the first time. One was a math teacher, the other a Playboy bunny. He once said that he never cheated on any of them, although some of his ex-boyfriends disagreed – and at least one abandoned him several times.
“I got married a lot,” he said once. “But in my mind, I’m not a married guy. When I grew up, no one lived together. If you fell in love, you got married. And then I married those 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 ”.
Shawn Southwick
(married in 1997; separated in 2019)
King’s longest wedding was also the last – and the only one that lasted. Although King filed for divorce from Southwick, 61, in 2019, they were still married at the time of King’s death. They have two children, Chance, 21, and Cannon, 20.
The two were married in a hospital room in 1997, shortly before he underwent surgery to clean a blocked blood vessel. Southwick, a show biz veterinarian with experience in acting and singing on TV shows in the 1970s and 1980s, was the daughter of a longtime music entrepreneur.
Although the marriage was difficult, in part due to the 26-year age difference and rumors of Southwick’s infidelity (including a reported dating affair with his son’s baseball coach), Southwick looked devastated when he heard that King had asked the divorce. “I was devastated, I had no idea what was going to happen, it really hurt. I was totally taken aback. “
Julie Alexander
(married in 1989; divorced in 1992)
King met businesswoman Julie Alexander and fell head over heels. He married her later that year in Washington, DC But it all ended almost as fast as it started. They separated in 1990 and divorced two years later. Alexander told the “Inside Edition” in 2010 that she suspected that King had betrayed her.
Sharon Lepore
(married in 1976; divorced in 1983)
Lepore, a former math teacher and TV production assistant, was among King’s lowest profile wives. It was King’s second longest wedding, but also the most private. Both did not say why they divorced.
Mickey Sutphin
(married in 1963; divorced in 1967)
The two met while working at a radio station in Miami and had a daughter, Kelly, who was apparently adopted by Sutphin’s second husband.
Alene Akins
(married in 1961; divorced in 1963. remarried in 1967; divorced in 1972)
A former Playboy bunny, Akins married King twice – with his marriage to Mickey Sutphin in the middle. They had a daughter, Chaia, and King adopted his son, Andy. Akins died in 2017, and King called her “great lady” in a tweet. Both Chaia, then 51, and Andy, then 65, died in 2020. Chaia died of lung cancer and Andy from a heart attack.
Annette Kaye
(married in 1961; divorced in 1961)
The marriage lasted only a year, but had a son, Larry Jr., now 59. Larry King Jr. was in his 30s when he met his father. Kaye told King about her shared son in 1994, when she was dying of lung cancer.
Freda Miller
(married in 1952; canceled in 1953)
King married his high school sweetheart, Freda Miller, when he was just 18. The marriage was annulled, apparently at the request of his parents, because they did not approve of the union.