My Remarkable Journey (24 page)

So the girl and I went to the Palm and were seated. It was around November 22, the anniversary of Kennedy’s assassination.
I told her how I heard the news on the radio and nearly got into an accident making a U-turn to get back to my radio station.
Then I asked, “Where were you?”

And she said, “I wasn’t born.”

“Weren’t born?”

Now I look at Shawn: Shawn was four at the time of Kennedy’s assassination. When she was four, I wouldn’t have given her a
second look. But she definitely caught my eye when I was going to pick up a birthday present for Chaia at Tiffany’s in Beverly
Hills. This was around Christmas of 1996. The way I tell the story for large groups is, “Shawn and I bumped into each other
in front of Tiffany’s, and it’s cost me a lot. Why couldn’t it have been Target?”

I’ll let her pick up the story from here. When it comes to describing what it’s like to be married to me, she’s definitely
more qualified than I am.

WIFE

I was walking out of Tiffany’s. Larry was coming across the street from the Beverly Wilshire. We headed straight for each
other. I looked up and he looked up. He gave me one of those grunting acknowledgments. I took a few steps and kind of grunted
back. Neither one of us said anything, and we kept going.

Of course, I knew who he was. I had watched him during the O.J. trial. I wouldn’t say I was a falling-down Larry King fan.
But when there were important news events, I would tune in to Larry. His celebrity wasn’t a big deal to me. From the time
I was a kid I was around people who were famous. My dad worked at Warner Brothers and Arista and Capitol Records and we often
had celebrities in our home. The Beach Boys would sit at our piano and play songs. I can remember going to school in the car
with Glen Campbell. When a Glen Campbell song came over the radio, Glen started clapping and saying, “Go, Glen, go!” That
was normal to me.

My dad was managing Donny and Marie Osmond when they became big, and they asked me to go with them on tour as a backup singer.
Oceans of people were always there when we got off the plane. It didn’t matter what time we arrived. If we landed at three
in the morning in some foreign country there’d be thousands of people with banners waiting for us. They’d try to tear our
hair out, I kid you not.

After that, I got married, had a son, and divorced. I was in a lot of sitcoms. Comedy was my favorite thing. I was on the
very first episode of
It’s Garry Shandling’s Show
. The part I played made me look like a ditz. I was the cable girl on a date with Garry, singing the entire theme song to
Gilligan’s Island
. I also interviewed movie stars and rock stars for seven years as host of
Hollywood Insider
. So bumping into a celebrity was not uncommon.

I kept walking toward the elevator to get to my car. By the time I got to my car, Larry was coming out the back door of Tiffany’s
and we bumped into each other again. That’s when he said, “You better get out of here right away or else we’re going to be
all over the tabloids.”

That made me laugh. It hooked me pretty quick. He has great timing. My family has always been big on telling funny stories
over and over. Larry loves to do that too, so it was very familiar to me.

We had a quick conversation. During the conversation I told him I had just broken up with somebody and I wasn’t much up for
a relationship, but that it would be great to be friends. I didn’t know it at the time, but telling Larry that you’re not
up for a relationship is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. If you tell him he can’t, he’s going to think,
Oh yes I can.

Shawn was very mature. And she was very striking. I immediately fell for her… and that was before I knew that she was the
quarterback on her powder-puff football team in high school. Almost every girl I’ve been with since I’ve been in broadcasting
has been very pretty. It’s a turn-on to me to be liked by a beautiful woman. I’d have beautiful girls say, “You’re really
funny. You have a great voice.” I never thought of myself as being in that kind of league.

Not only was Shawn beautiful, but she was smart, talented and she had a close-knit family. On top of that, she was a fantastic
businesswoman. She had invented clip-in hair extensions and then marketed them with an infomercial that did millions in business
in a single quarter. Just looking at Shawn made me feel like I was hitting the jackpot on the back nine. What could be better?

Of course, I had to convince Shawn that I was right for
her.
It became a quest. Shawn had just broken up with this guy who was still after her. That spurred me on. I’m very competitive
in that regard. Sometimes I don’t even know what it is that’s driving me—the girl or the challenge.

So, he said, “I don’t have a pen. I’m at the Wilshire. Give me a call.”

I was the hall monitor in fifth grade at Colfax Elementary School. I was the one who raised my hand every time there was a
task that needed to be done. Larry would be the school traffic monitor on purpose because he and his friends liked to wave
cars into each other and create chaos. But I was the rule keeper. If I told you I was going to call you back, I put you on
my to do list and called you back. I was getting ready to go to Utah to celebrate Christmas with family. I was checking off
my things to do. One of those things was to return phone calls. I was at the corner of Riverside and Woodman, waiting for
the light to change so I could make a left turn. I had a minute, and that’s when I called him. We had a short conversation,
and I gave him my phone numbers.

She went to Utah; it was right before Christmas. We had met on December 21, but I didn’t go out with her until she came back.
That was around January 8. In between, I called her every day. But I was really spurred on when she told me that her ex-boyfriend
was trying to get back with her. That drove me nuts.

I ran into Al Pacino shortly before Shawn was supposed to meet me once in New York. He asked me what I was up to, and I told
him that I’d met this girl and really liked her.

He said, “Can I help?”

“Well, I’m having dinner with her tomorrow—”

“I got it!” Al said. “I’ll drop by the restaurant and act like I’ve known you all my life. Give you the full treatment.”

I’d never mentioned Al Pacino to her.

The next night, Shawn and I were having dinner. In he came with a big hug. “Hey, Larry! Jeez, where you been?”

It didn’t hurt.

I was completely smitten. I remember a time when Shawn was recording a segment in Nashville. I was in Philadelphia with Colin
Powell at his volunteer organization. I was trying to reach Shawn all day while she was in the studio. No answer. I was leaving
messages on her cell phone. There was no return call. Then I had to go on the air with Colin.

Colin said, “What’s the matter?”

I said, “I’m with this girl.”

He gave me a look. That
Oh, I get it
look. Finally, I got a message that Shawn was calling. I remember how excited I was. Colin picked up the phone and said to
her, “Listen, you’re going to ruin this man. You’re going to ruin his career. It may cramp your style, but you’ve got to call
him.”

As time passed, we got to know each other. In some ways, we’re polar opposites. But we also had a lot in common. I’d be lying
if I said the age difference didn’t come up. Larry is almost thirty years older than I am. But I remember my dad working on
the Glenn Miller big band project. He blasted the music on speakers at the house and taught us how to dance the jitterbug.
Early on in our relationship, Larry and I were dancing the jitterbug and he said, “Whoa! How did you learn?”

Our song is “The Way You Look Tonight.” Frank Sinatra. It’s one of my favorite Sinatra records. It’s right up there with Frank
singing “There Used to Be a Ballpark Right Here.”

As we got closer, my parents were up in arms. “He’s been married a hundred times!” they said. I don’t know how I explained
it to my parents. To be honest, I don’t know how Larry explained it to me. He must have felt me wavering a bit at one point.
Because one night I got a call at about three in the morning from somebody very close to him. She said, “Shawn, Larry asked
me to tell you that he was only really married three times.”

As if I would buy that! It’s obvious that he was sensitive about it. He’s been married eight times, but for years he managed
to keep it to seven in the media. I guess when you compare it to seven or eight, three marriages doesn’t seem so bad. What
happened in the past, for me, is in the past. I was just thinking about us in the present.

The big issue for me was faith. I’m Mormon, and my faith is strong. If we did get married, and have children, my faith would
have to prevail, because there was no religious faith on his side. He was OK with that. It probably bugs him every once in
a while. It would bug me. But I don’t know. If I wasn’t religious, maybe it wouldn’t bug me.

I knew I would raise the kids so that they’d know about their Jewish ancestry and traditions. It was the Mormon Church’s genealogical
records that told Larry all about his background. He didn’t know where his father really came from until he saw those records.

We weren’t engaged yet when we went to do a book signing with Chaia. Larry and Chaia had written a children’s book. We were
in the back of a limo, and Larry started to get sweaty. His mouth was really dry. He said, “There’s something I need to tell
you that I haven’t told you. You know about Chaia and Andy. I have another child. The reason I’m telling you now is that you’re
going to meet him today.”

It didn’t matter to me if he had three kids or ten. My son Danny is from a previous marriage. Maybe Larry thought I would
have a bad reaction. I don’t see why having another child is a bad thing. It’s what a person does and says when he’s with
me that’s important. So I was thinking,
Why didn’t you tell me?
But that was Larry, trying to minimize. Larry had a way—and still has a way—of making things the way he wants them to be.

It may all go back to the fact that his dad was taken from him when he was so young. Larry has had so much pain in his life.
I see decisions he makes now that I think are affected by his father’s death. It’s as if he’d been abandoned. It’s not easy
to talk about. If he heard me talking about it, he’d probably tear up.

I met Larry Jr. and his wife that day. We all had lunch. It was surreal; partly because Larry hadn’t told me, but maybe also
because of the guilt Larry felt for all those years he wasn’t there for Larry Jr. In the end, I guess I did what I always
do. I protected Larry. I’ll protect him to the end. I’ll take as many bullets for Larry as I need to take.

I proposed when Shawn was in the hospital. But I was afraid to hear no.

I had just had a procedure and I was a little woozy. He was at my bedside, and he said, “This would be a knife in my heart
should you refuse. So, I’m not gonna ask. I’m just gonna put it out there. The offer is on the table. Should you decide that
you want to accept, just give me some sort of signal.” As he said it, his hand moved like a slap, a twirl, and a bird flying
away. That became the signal.

We went to tell Shawn’s parents. When we told her mother, she nearly fainted. The day we officially got engaged, when I got
Shawn her ring, was also the day I got my star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We didn’t say anything about it because my attorney
Mark Barondess also got engaged the same day and we didn’t want to take away from his big day. It was a funny time. Warren
Beatty, who’d directed me in
Bulworth
, wanted to do some extra shooting for the film. So he came to CNN to shoot. Mark Barondess brought Rose, his girlfriend,
that night. So when Warren came in, I said, “I got an idea. What if you came on to Rose?”

As everybody knows, Warren Beatty is a good-looking guy. He walked by Rose and said, “Hey, what are you doing later?”

She started getting all flustered.

The more flustered she got, the more he kept going around to her and whispering things.

Finally, at the end of the shoot, she went by the set. He walked over to her and got down on his knee. Now she was totally
frightened. She didn’t know what he was going to do.

He pulled out a ring. You should have seen her face.

And then he said, “Will you marry him?” And then nodded to Mark.

That was fun.

We planned for our wedding to be at a friend’s home, a giant estate. The ceremony would take place on a tennis court draped
in beautiful fabric. There were going to be chandeliers on clear wire so it would look like they were hanging in midair. Vic
Damone was going to sing. Billy Graham was flying in. It was going to be great.

That week, I found out that Larry had another daughter—a daughter that he was distant from. It came out in a big magazine
profile. I knew that I loved Larry. I knew that I wanted to marry him. But I was definitely going to talk about it with him
before the wedding. It’s just that there were so many things going on at the time. People were flying in from all over. I
was trying to make sure that everything was just right. Then, when I was getting shoes for the wedding dress, the phone rang.
It was Larry. He started talking about how his shoulder was hurting and how he was feeling chest pain.

I went to the hospital and failed a stress test. An artery was closed. If I had left the hospital then, I could have had a
heart attack and died. It was bizarre. The doctors at UCLA wanted to do another bypass surgery as the clock to the wedding
was ticking. Herbie insisted on bringing in the New York doctors.