Larry King, who died Saturday at the age of 87, was known almost as much for his multiple marriages and divorces as for being an icon of the broadcaster. He was married eight times to seven different women. He was only 18 the first time. One was a math teacher, the other a Playboy rabbit. He once said that he never cheated on either of them, although some of his exes disagreed – and at least one stepped out on him several times.
“I have been married a lot,” he once said. ‘But in my mind I am not married. When I was growing up, no one lived together. If you fell in love, you got married. And so I married those I loved. But what I loved at 20 was not what I liked at 30, and what I loved at 30 is not what I liked at 40. “
Shawn Southwick
(married 1997; divorced 2019)
King’s longest marriage was also his last – and all that lasted. Although King filed for divorce from Southwick, 61, in 2019, they were reportedly still married at the time of King’s death. They have two sons, Chance, 21, and Cannon, 20.
The two were married in a hospital room in 1997, just before undergoing surgery to remove a blocked blood vessel. Southwick, a showbiz veterinarian with a background in acting and singing on TV shows in the 1970s and 80s, was the daughter of a longtime music manager.
While the marriage was rocky, in part because of their 26-year age difference and Southwick’s rumors of infidelity (including a reported disagreement with her son’s baseball coach), Southwick seemed devastated when she learned that King had filed for divorce. “I was crushed, I had no idea this was coming, it hurt, yes. I was totally blind. “
Julie Alexander
(married 1989; divorced 1992)
King met businesswoman Julie Alexander and fell head over heels. He married her later that year in Washington, DC. But it was over almost as quickly as it began. They split in 1990 and divorced two years later. Alexander told Inside Edition in 2010 that she suspected King had cheated on her.
Sharon Lepore
(married 1976; divorced 1983)
Lepore, a former math teacher and TV production assistant, was among King’s worst wives. It was King’s second longest marriage, but also the most private. They were both mothers as to why they divorced.
Mickey Sutphin
(married 1963; divorced 1967)
The two reportedly met while working at a Miami radio station and had a daughter, Kelly, who was apparently adopted by Sutphin’s second husband.
Alene Akins
(married 1961; divorced 1963. Remarried 1967; divorced 1972)
Akins, a former Playboy bunny, married King twice – with his marriage to Mickey Sutphin in between. They had a daughter, Chaia, and King adopted her son, Andy. Akins died in 2017 and King called her a “grand lady” in a tweet. Both Chaia, then 51, and Andy, then 65, died in 2020. Chaia died of lung cancer and Andy of a heart attack.
Annette Kaye
(married 1961; divorced 1961)
Their marriage lasted only a year, but produced a son, Larry Jr., now 59. Larry King Jr. was in his thirties when he met his father. Kaye told King about their shared child in 1994, when she was dying of lung cancer.
Freda Miller
(married 1952; annulled 1953)
King married his high school sweetheart Freda Miller when he was only 18. The marriage was annulled, apparently at the request of her parents because they did not approve the union.