Larry King was hospitalized last week but did not have a heart attack as early reports said, according to a rep for the legendary talk show host.
“On the morning of Thursday, April 23, Larry King was scheduled for an angioplasty. Before his scheduled procedure, he experienced angina and went to the hospital early to be examined,” a spokesperson for King said. “His doctor successfully performed the angioplasty and inserted stents to reopen the previous bypass from 1987. He has been recuperating in the hospital and is scheduled to be released soon. His doctors expect him to make a full recovery.”
The spokesperson also disputed an early report that the 85-year-old “Larry King Now” host went into cardiac arrest before his hospitalization.
TMZ was first to report the news on Monday, but the gossip site misidentified the cause of King’s hospitalization as a heart attack. King had been having trouble breathing for “months” prior to his hospitalization, the gossip site wrote.
“To be clear, and contrary to published reports, his doctors say he did not have a heart attack and he did not go into cardiac arrest,” the spokesperson said. “Larry is in good spirits and thanks everyone for their concern. He’s expected to be back to work on his shows, ‘Larry King Now’ and ‘PoliticKING” with Larry King’ soon.”
King has been outspoken about his history of heart disease, including co-authoring the book “Mr. King, You’re Having a Heart Attack” in 1989 about surviving his first heart attack and subsequent quintuple-bypass surgery two years prior.
In 2017, the legendary talk show host was diagnosed with stage 1 Adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer, during a routine chest X-ray and had the upper lobe of his lung and lymph node removed.