Nearly eight years after Gene Wilder passed away at the age of 83, his widow, Karen Boyer, reveals the actor’s heartbreaking last words.
In the new documentary Remembering Gene Wilder, Boyer opens up about the years between the actor’s Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and his final days.
“He hadn’t walked alone [in a long time] and it was just a few days before he died,” she recalled. “And I looked up and he was walking across the kitchen and then he said, ‘I want to go swimming.’”
Gene Wilder’s wife then spoke about his last swim. “He dove into the pool like he used to — I saw his little tush in the air — and I was awestruck.”
“And he took two strokes, he stood up, shook his head the way he always did to get the water out of his ear, and said, ‘That’s good.’ Went back to bed, and I think he just wanted to get in the pool one more time.”
Boyer went on to say that the final words she heard her husband say occurred while the couple was listening to Ella Fitzgerald’s Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
“I was lying next to him and he sat up in bed and he said, ‘I trust you,'” Boyer recalled. “And then he said, ‘I love you.’ That’s the last thing he said.”
Gene Wilder and Karen Boyer Met in 1989 After Gilda Radner Passed Away
PEOPLE reports that Gene Wilder first met Karen Boyer while he was doing research for his 1989 film See No Evil, Hear No Evil. However, the couple did not go on their first date for over a year.
The relationship happened after his third wife, Gilda Radner passed away at the age of 42 from ovarian cancer.
Boyer continues to describe Gene Wilder as being the best husband. “Gene was wonderful; he was the best husband I think anybody could ask for. To love and be loved is the best gift anybody could ask for, and we had that.”
In addition to reflecting on her husband’s final days, Boyer spoke about when she first noticed Wilder’s memory loss struggles. She said he had a problem remembering the title of Young Frankenstein.
“He never really accepted that he had Alzheimer’s,” Boyer said. “And maybe by the time we found out that’s what it was, his hippocampus didn’t let him remember.”
“So I’m not sure that he ever knew. When I’d see him slip away further from me I was sick to my stomach but I had to keep smiling and tell him that everything was okay.”