Iconic talk show host Larry King passes away at 87 after testing positive for COVID-19

New Delhi | Jagran Entertainment Desk: Iconic broadcast interviewer Larry King passed away on Saturday at the age of 87, days after being hospitalised in Los Angeles with COVID-19. The official twitter handle of Ora Media, a network co-founded by king in 2012, shared in a statement that the late talk show host breathed his last at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in LA.

"With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles," read a statement shared by the network. 

In a career spaning six decades, King conducted thousands of interviews with leading politicians, celebrities, world leaders and controversial figures on both television and radio. His nightly interview program 'Larry King Live' on US broadcaster CNN ran for 15 years and was station's most watched programs, with over a million views on average per episode. 

"For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry's many thousands of interviews, awards and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster. Additionally, while it was his names appearing in the shows' titles, Larry always viewed his interview subjects as the true stars of his programs, and himself as merely an unbiased conduit between the guest and audience," Ora Media wrote. 

CNN had earlier reported that the veteran talk show host was hospitalised. He had lost two of his children in 2020: 51-year-old Chaia to lung cancer and 65-year-old Andi to heart attack with 23 days of one another. King had suffered a near-fatal stroke in May 2019, just weeks after undergoing a heart surgery.