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Gene Hackman's longtime friend of 20 years Tom Allin, while speaking to The New York Times, said that Hackman's friend Betsy Arakawa was the reason the late actor was alive as long as he did.
Allin noted that the late actor would have died long ago, if it wasn't for Arakawa taking care of his healthy diet.
"She just really looked after him."
Allin mentioned that he once saw Arakawa mixing soda water into Hackman's wine at a friend's 90th birthday in 2020 to take care of his health. The interview comes after maintenance workers found Hackman and his wife Arakawa's dead bodies at their Santa Fe, New Mexico home on February 26.
On March 8, authorities revealed that Gene Hackman died of a heart attack after his wife Betsy passed away from hantavirus. Santa Fe County Sheriff Adan Mendoza alleged that the actor was likely unaware of his wife's death due to his advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease.
Oscar award-winning actor, Gene Hackman was best known for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's 1971 thriller The French Connection. He met Betsy Arakawa, a concert pianist, when she was working part time at a California gym in the mid 1980s.
More about Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa
After Gene Hackman and Betsy Arakawa were found dead by maintenance workers at their Santa Fe home, friends and family members took to remember the couple. As per the couple's friends, Hackman and Arakawa were reserved to their home in their final days due to Hackman's Alzheimer's, and Betsy took the role of a caregiver, to keep him alive.
Their friend Daniel Lenihan, while speaking to CNN's Erin Burnett said,
"Last time we saw them, they were alive and well."
His wife, Barbara, added that they last saw Arakawa a few weekks ago at a home decor shop,
"They were so delightful to be around. Probably never seen a couple that got along and enjoyed each other so much."
After meeting for the first time in the 1980s, the couple got married in 1991 and had a 30-year age gap. Susan Contreras, another friend, while speaking about their age gap mentioned,
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"That part never came to mind because they seemed equal in so many ways. She was a personality unto herself."
Dr. Heather Jarrell, chief medical examiner for the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator, alleged that Arakawa passed away first, due to Hantavirus, a virus contracted through contact with rodents.
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