Shawn Southwick - Larry King’s Wife, Career and Childhood

Shawn Ora Engemann was born on November 5, 1959, to Karl and Geri Engemann in Studio City, California. Her father, Karl, was the chief of Artist & Repertoire at ‘Capitol Records’ and the business manager of Marie Osmond, the celebrated country music singer, and actress for 35 years. Her mother, Geri was also a studio singer for stars like Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley. Bob Engemann, her uncle, was one of the original members of ‘The Lettermen’, a three-member American male pop vocal group. She spent her growing up years surrounded by show biz professionals and the elite society.

Shawn graduated in 1977 from the North Hollywood High School in North Hollywood, California and thereafter attended Brigham Young University, a private university in Provo, Utah.

Having grown up surrounded by show business personalities and the elite of Southern California, Shawn commenced her artistic career by becoming a professional singer at a very early age. By the time she was three years old, she was fairly well-entrenched in her singing career singing with established celebrity singers like Neil Diamond, Tennessee Ernie Ford, The Beach Boys and, Bobby Sherman in studio recordings as a backup artist. She had her special moments as one of the children singing in ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, a film made for the television starring Burl Ives and also sang a solo appearing in the Nat King Cole Christmas special. She has also sung for the Oscar Meyer wiener commercial. When she was just 15 years old, she played the role of Pam Flinders in the production of ‘Saturday’s Warrior’. In 1975, her song along with her brother Paul, ‘For Your Love’ was ranked #91 in the national charts.

After she completed her university education, she started acting, mainly, as a bit player and supporting actress in Hollywood productions. In the mid-80s, she also found popularity in a number of prime-time TV shows like ‘Knight Rider’, ‘The A-Team’, ‘McCormick’, ‘Hardcastle’, and ‘Riptide’. In 1982, she was seen in one episode of the very successful ‘Remington Steele’ and in 1984, in ‘Cover Up’ and ‘Monaco Forever’, a comedy film. She co-hosted ‘The Spectacular World of Guinness Records’ with David Frost.

From 1990-1998, she hosted, ‘Hollywood Insider’, a very popular entertainment news and features TV show on ‘The USA Network’. She was the voice of ‘Connie’ in ‘Rover Dangerfield’, a 1991 movie about a show dog that ended up on a farm after being dumped.

She took a career break after her marriage to Larry King and resumed her career only in 2005 as a singer of country songs. She made her debut with the Steve Tyrell production, ‘In My Own Backyard’ for ‘Lofton Creek Records’. She also sang the title track of a compilation CD, ‘Gotta Love the Holidays’ in 2012 in support of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation. Three years later, in 2015, she acted along with Patrick Stewart and Jon Heder in the movie, Christmas Eve’. She appears along with Larry King in the movie ‘Starlight’, scheduled for release in December 2018.’

In 2008, Shawn Southwick hit the headlines when she went into rehab for being addicted to painkillers. The rumors floating around that she was depressed and anorexic were scotched when a reliable source confirmed that Shawn had taken painkillers since childhood to combat migraines and as a result, developed a dependency.

Her marriage with King has always been dotted with strife; Shawn has been accused of having affairs with Richard Greene, the celebrity public speaker, and Hector Penate, her son’s baseball coach; both allegations have been denied by her. In turn, Shawn has also accused Larry of having an affair with her younger sister, Shannon, who has, however, vehemently denied any such thing.

The media also reported that Shawn had failed to support Larry when he was dealing with severe health issues, however, not surprisingly, she categorically denied the accusation. The couple filed for divorce on April 14, 2010, however, on July 7, 2010 they filed petitions for dismissal of their divorce case citing “We love our children, we love each other, and we love being a family. That is all that matters to us".

Shawn’s first marriage was with Daniel Southwick and it took place on 24 October 1980. They had one child, Danny who was born on 28 September 1981 and went on to become an American football player.

On 5 September 1997, she married Larry King, a famous TV personality; the event was much-talked about not only because Larry was a huge celebrity but also because the marriage was solemnized in a Los Angeles, California hospital room with three days to go before Larry was scheduled to undergo surgery to clear a clogged blood vessel, according to the ‘New York Times’. While this was Shawn’s second marriage, it was Larry’s eight attempt to find a partner. Shawn and Larry have two children; Chance Armstrong King (b. March 9, 1999) and Cannon Edward King (b. May 22, 2000). Shawn is known to belong to ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’.