Cuomo Pays Tribute To Larry King: He’s A Big Reason Why I’m In Your Face Tonight

King died Saturday aged 87. He was hospitalized with COVID-19 in December.

“When I got a call that he had passed, I immediately had another reason to hate COVID because I know it took a lot out of him,” said Cuomo, who himself battled the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic.

Cuomo remembered King’s friendship and interviews with his father, the late Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York, who he said “loved Larry, the man, not the media guy.”

The CNN anchor then recalled the support that King had offered him throughout his media career, from encouraging him to leave law and pursue journalism (against his father’s wishes) and then backing his move from ABC News to CNN and later to the network’s prime time slot.

“He was a beautiful man,” Cuomo said of King, describing him as “decent” and “real.” There will “never be another Larry King; combination of grit, life experience, bearing, it comes once,” Cuomo added. “It is not goodbye, it is see you soon brother.”