Larry King's Wife Shawn Southwick King Enters Rehab For Addiction To Painkillers: Report

The New York Post's Page Six reports that Shawn Southwick King, wife of CNN's Larry King, has entered rehab for addition to painkillers:

TALKMEISTER Larry King's stunning TV-personality wife, Shawn Southwick King, 48, has gone into rehab for addiction to painkillers. King, 74, has been married to Southwick, his sixth wife, for 10 years and they have two children together. A friend of King's confirmed to Page Six, "Shawn is in rehab for medication issues related to her chronic migraine problem." CNN declined to comment.

Shawn King discussed her migraines on the April 26, 2005 broadcast of "Larry King Live," and, in particular, discussed the dangers of taking too much pain medication:

L. KING: Before we ask Susan, does Imitrex work -- does anything work for you?

S. KING: So far, we're still searching.

L. KING: None of the pain pills work for you?

S. KING: No. I mean, well, you've taken me to the hospital for morphine when it gets really, really bad.

L. KING: So none of the -- even the new ones?

S. KING: But you have to be really careful, because it can be a cycle where if you take too much pain medication, that can trigger another migraine.

L. KING: So the pain -- the cause -- the cure is the cause?

Story continues below

advertisement

S. KING: Right.

Earlier in that broadcast, Shawn King said she could get as many as ten migraines in one month and that she hadn't gone three months without a migraine since first coming down with the painful headaches:

SHAWN KING, SINGER, LARRY'S WIFE, MIGRAINE SUFFERER: I remember the very day, it was the day my brother got married. And I put the luncheon on, the brunch. And after my part of the brunch was over with, I started losing vision in this -- like a crescent shape. And I would hold up my hand, and I couldn't tell how many fingers I was holding up. And...

L. KING: What did you think it was?

S. KING: Well, I didn't have any idea, except I mentioned it to the fellow who was sitting next to me. He said, you're about to get a migraine headache. Because he was a migraine sufferer.

L. KING: Since then you get them how frequently?

S. KING: Oh, it depends.

L. KING: Average?

S. KING: Average, boy, I can get 10 in a month. I can get one or three in a month. You've seen me go through...

L. KING: What's the longest you've ever been without one?

S. KING: Oh, gosh.

L. KING: Do you think? You ever gone three months without one?

S. KING: No.

Click for the full transcript of Shawn King migraines discussion on "Larry King Live."

Comments

[xargaw]

I completely avoid salt or anything that has salt in it. That has almost eliminated them for me. It is hard at first because almost every pre-maid or processed food has salt in it. You really end up eating only fresh food or food you prepare from scratch. But in the long run you have a better diet. I am not a big believer in herbal stuff or special diets, but this works for me. I can't take Imitrex. Eliminating salt has done more than anything. I get one about once a year now as opposed to once or twice a month.

[avraamjack]

.
Try LSD. It works.
.

[xpresv]

Dude, are you a dealer or something? Jeez. Chill with the LSD advocacy. last thing we need is a bunch of tripped-out old liberals walking around...t­hey might get to F***ed up and hit the McCain button instead of Obama in November.

SHHHHHH!

[heal57]

Even once a month isn't bad. There are similar meds to Imitrex that work better; and you can take half dose. I don't think salt does it for me and I couldn't eliminate it anyway. It's a mode. When in a migraine mode I just get them quite frequently. Other times I can go 10 to 14 days without one and I don't do anything differently. I think it has much to do with digestion, and the colon, etc. Nobody's sue. I've been to 5 neurologists during my lifetime and found them useless.

[KrazyKat]

Wow, lots of bitter folks out there. I don't suffer from migraines, but HuffPo readers often give me a headache.

I wish Shawn King a healthy recovery.

[hilaritee]

shocking isnt it...sad bitter nasty people. what can you do?

[mairs]

The sixth wife of a fossil 26 years older than she is and a foot shorter. What are these women thinking? Oh. Yeah.

[Bluebloodsbastardson]

She can rest a beer on his head at parties

[lippp]

social connections and climbing come to mind

[BlueandGreen]

As a fellow migraine sufferer, I recommend the herb feverfew (as a preventive) and a good chiropractor (keep those cerivcal vertebrae in alignment!) .... now I only get a couple of migraines a year. For the pain .... two Execedrin and a magnesium tablet. The heavy duty meds the doc prescribed only made me feel nauseated and flaky. However, maybe Shawn King's real headache is an old fart named Larry!

[avraamjack]

.
LSD once a year and you may never get a migrane.
.

[LittleMarymoonshine]

Feverfew worked for me too. You do have to take it every day, but that only amounts to about $10 a month.

[jneems]

I used to get headaches. Turns out I was gluten-intolerant. Since I went off grains, no more headaches. I hope she is looking at what she eats. This woman might also benefit from some cleanses - colon, liver, and parasite for example. Taking all those pain pills is not addressing the underlying problem and it will only get worse.

[ROBOT8]

YES, THE PAIN OF BEING WITH LARRY

[SonnyBono]

Did Shawn King steal drugs from a charity, did she fire the whistleblower that informed the Feds, is she married to a presidential candidate, does she go around making snarky snide comments about others suggesting some sort of moral superiority? No - oh, okay, move on - no story here.

[trollsbwild]

Is losing vision a bad thing when you have to look at Larry as your husband? More than just my head would be in excruciating pain being married to that man.

[AdLib]

There's only so many times she could say the joke:

"Does your face hurt? Well, it's killing me."

until she needed something else to take the pain away of kissing, let alone sleeping with Larry King.

[sa]

next headline: larry king's wife get sober - realizes she married larry king, files for divorce.

.

[kappa08]

What a miserable bunch.

[TroubleNYC]

Larry should bring in experts to discuss this issue. Cindy McCain should be first.

[hempshire]

Shawn King need to find a good hypnotherapist. She obviously received a negative suggestion from the fellow sitting next to her at the party and that suggestion has now been accepted by her subconscious mind at her truth. Everything she has done since then has supported that belief that she is someone who suffers from regular migraines. She has come to identify with the migraine as a part of her. Obviously there may very well be secondary benefits from taking this on. Larry does look creepy and it is not a stretch to think that her life has some flaws. Good luck Mrs. King. Really try something different. Hypnotherapy may very well be the key.

[avraamjack]

.
Hypno? LSD is known to provide long lasting releif. Marijuana helps too.
.

[Kranich]

Painkillers? What? GARLIQUE, washed down with some Welch’s Grape Juice is not enough?

[Scytherius]

Yeah, the pain of being married to Larry King.

[Dannydel]

Convicted felon, serial husband, annoyingly uninformed and forgetful talkshow host, walking relic. It seems a migraine would be the last of this womans worries.

[heal57]

Maybe these are the reason she has migraines.
I get them also and I wouldn't wish them on anybody. They are very debilitating and unless you suffer with them, you just have no idea what it's like. I've knocked out a few by drinking tons of water, but it only works sometimes and I keep myself well hydrated. There's unknown triggers.