Shawn King, the widow of late TV icon Larry King, stepped out with cuts and bruises on her face as she was spotted out and about for the first time since his death three and a half years ago, as seen in video and photos exclusively obtained by In Touch.
“She looked very tired, and it seemed like she was stressed out,” an eyewitness exclusively tells In Touch. “It was hard to recognize her, like she’d aged 10 years. I had a hard time recognizing her. And the bruising on her face was sad to see. Who knows what happened there.”
For her outing on Wednesday, June 26, Shawn – who appeared to be moving out of a house as she instructed removal trucks who were taking away luggage – wore a large straw hat to shield herself from the California heat, jeans and a stripped gray shirt. She appeared to have a cut on her chin and what looked like bruising on one of her eyes.
Singer and actress Shawn, 64, has kept an extremely low profile since her late husband’s death from sepsis on January 23, 2021, at the age of 87. She’s the mother of the former couple’s two sons Chance, 25 and Cannon, 24.
Shawn has not appeared on social media since Easter 2023. She shared an Instagram Boomerang video blowing a kiss to the camera next to one of her sons, along with a photo of their dinner table. “I just finished doing the dishes,” she captioned the post.
Since Larry’s death, Shawn has been embroiled in messy legal battles after vowing to fight for a share of his $144 million estate, which was originally ordered to be divided equally amongst his five surviving children.
She filed a lawsuit against business managers Blouin & Company seeking $100 million in damages for alleged breach of fiduciary duty, professional negligence, and fraud in October 2022.
In her lawsuit, late estranged husband’s son from his second marriage, Larry King Jr., as well as former Larry King Live producer Greg Christensen, who worked on her late estranged husband’s CNN show, were listed as defendants.
Shawn claimed that the firm, along with her late estranged husband’s son Larry King Jr., were improperly transferring millions of dollars to third parties and companies behind her back and without her permission. She also claimed Blouin had a secret bank account which allowed them to funnel money to Larry’s son.
The firm has denied any wrongdoing and has asked for the lawsuit to be thrown out.
In her lawsuit, Shawn alleged that Christensen helped Blouin keep financial information away from her, for which he was paid $40,000. In February 2023, Christensen claimed to have witnessed Shawn abuse the iconic journalist whilst he was still alive. Three months later, Shawn “vigorously” disputed the accusations, according to Radar Online. Christensen has since been dismissed from the case.
Shawn’s lawsuit is still pending in Los Angeles Superior Court and a hearing is set for July.
Formerly Shawn Southwick, the Studio City, California, native married the Larry King Live star on September 5, 1997, becoming his seventh wife. They each filed for divorce in 2010, but later reconciled. The couple split in 2019 when Larry filed for divorce but were still married at the time of Larry’s passing. Shawn maintains that she and Larry had reconciled before his passing, which followed 23 years of marriage.
Shawn spoke out about her estranged husband’s final moments shortly after his death.
“We were able to do FaceTime in the hospital and it was hard for him to talk, but the one message that he wanted to make sure I heard was, ‘I love you, take care of the boys,’” she told Entertainment Tonight on January 27, 2021.
Shawn clarified that his death was due to sepsis and not COVID-19, as there had been some speculation the broadcaster had died from the virus.
“Well, he was finally ready to go, I will tell you that. You know, he never wanted to go but his sweet little body was just, it had just been hit so many times with so many things and once we heard the word COVID, all of our hearts just sunk. But he beat it, you know, he beat it, but it did take its toll and then the unrelated infection finally is what took him, but boy, he was not gonna go down easily,” she explained.
As for their relationship status at the time of his death, Shawn told the outlet, “Larry and I, you know, we never finalized our divorce, In my heart, I didn’t think it was really going to happen and it never did. We were partners in every sense of the way, in business, and in, well, first in our family and then in business. But we’re a close family. You know, family is the most important thing, and God.”
