Larry King, TV chatshow veteran, in hospital with coronavirus – reports

Veteran talk show host Larry King, 87, is being treated at a Los Angeles hospital for Covid-19, according to multiple US reports. CNN, his employer for many years, said he had been in hospital for a week.

“Larry has fought so many health issues in the last few years and he is fighting this one hard too, he’s a champ,” ABC News reported a source close to the family as saying, after the story was originally reported in a showbiz column.

King is believed to be in isolation in Cedars-Sinai medical center in Los Angeles.

He revealed in 2017 he had been treated for lung cancer. In 2019 he had an angioplasty and suffered a stroke. He survived a major heart attack in 1987.

King, who started on a Miami radio station, rose to become the highest-rated, and paid, anchor in cable news. For 25 years, he hosted Larry King Live on CNN, which at its peak was bringing in 1.5 million viewers a night.

After leaving CNN in 2010, when he was famously usurped by British journalist Piers Morgan, he continued broadcasting on a platform co-founded with Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. The Russian state broadcaster, RT (previously Russia Today) picked up the shows King had been making, a talkshow and a politics show, in 2013.

In his six-decade career, King interviewed interviewed a vast array of celebrities and political leaders, including Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, every US president from Nixon to Trump.

King had a difficult year in 2020, losing two of his children. His son, Andy, died of a heart attack in July and his daughter, Chaia, died of lung cancer in August.