Larry King's widow Shawn King has confirmed that the veteran broadcaster died of sepsis and not coronavirus.

The long-time CNN anchor died at the age of 87 last weekend in a Los Angeles hospital, around a month after being admitted with coronavirus.

A couple of weeks before his death, King was moved out of intensive care and appeared to be on the mend but his weakened state left him vulnerable to an infection which ultimately proved fatal.

"It was an infection, it was sepsis," Shawn, who had been separated from King for more than a year, told Entertainment Tonight. "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 sank.

"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."

Shawn was King's seventh wife and is the mother of two of his sons, 21-year-old Chance and 20-year-old Cannon.