Larry King Files For Divorce From Wife Of 22 Years After Reportedly Realizing She Was Only Interested In Cashing In On His Death

Jonathan Leibson/Getty Images for Celebrity Fight Night


Larry King’s 22-year marriage to his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick, has had more drama than a Lifetime original series.

That drama will either end or expand with the recent news that King, 85, is has filed for divorce from the 59-year-old former singer and television host.

Court documents obtained by The Blast filed on Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court cite “irreconcilable differences” but “doesn’t mention anything about a prenuptial agreement between the two, nor does he make any requests in the support department.”

At 85 years old and just a couple months removed from doctors opening up his chest and inserted several stents into a collapsed artery, King’s divorce timing is by design.

Sources close to the situation told The Blast that during King’s health scare, he came to a realization that Shawn “doesn’t care” about him and was only concerned about cashing in when King passed away (he is worth an estimated $150 million).

Larry’s family and two children are reportedly fully in support of the break-up and are glad he finally “woke up.”

Once you peel back the layers of their relationship, it’s entirely believable that King’s been saving the divorce bullet in the holster and waiting to shoot it before he reaches life’s finish line.

In 2010, the couple submitted paperwork for a divorce after the National Enquirer reported that Shawn had an affair with one of their sons’ baseball coaches, Hector Penate.

Penate, who was 31 at the time, said that he began having sex with Southwick 2.5 weeks after they met in 2007. He told CBS:

“We had sex in Larry’s bed a lot,” he said. “I felt like it was my house.”

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more insidious, Penate revealed that Southwick often spoke to him of her desire to divorce King and even said, “‘Don’t worry, he’s gonna die soon.'”

Before you trash Ms. Southwick on social media, we must recognize that Larry King ain’t no choir boy.

At the same time Southwick was boning the baseball coach, King was allegedly slapping skins with SOUTHWICK’S LITTLE SISTER, Shannon Engemann.

E. Neitzel/WireImage


Shawn had accused King of cheating with her sister after allegedly finding a charge for a Cartier diamond necklace on his credit card statement.

“I had sex with Larry, and he bought me an expensive car,” Engemann told a close pal at the time, referring to a $160,000 Mercedes-Benz that led to exposure of the dalliance. [h/t Radar]

Yikes.

File this story under: Why Famous People Should Not Get Married: Vol. 2,932.

 

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Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.