Just weeks before her sudden death at age 79, RadarOnline.com can report actress Diane Keaton reunited with her lover on-screen and off, Woody Allen, for the first time in years.
The couple were lifelong friends, even as the director battled allegations of sexual assault.
Keaton passed away over the weekend at age 79.
Keaton, who died at her home in California on Saturday, October 11, shared a decades-long connection with Allen that began when the pair starred together in his 1972 Broadway play Play It Again, Sam.
According to insiders, the 89-year-old controversial director stopped by Keaton’s Brentwood home last month for a long-awaited reunion
“It was just the two of them, no entourage, no staff,” one source told Hollywood insider Rob Shuter, who writes on Substack. “They sat in her garden, talking and laughing for hours. It was like watching time rewind.”
Keaton Defended Allen
She starred opposite Allen in several movies, including ‘Annie Hall.’
Their connection spanned eight films, including Sleeper, Love and Death, and Annie Hall, the 1977 classic that earned Keaton her only Oscar and immortalized her quirky, androgynous style.
In interviews, she often defended him, even after he was accused by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, of sexual assault – allegations Allen has always denied. In 2018, Keaton said, “Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him.”
Despite the controversy, Keaton welcomed him into her home warmly.
“Diane’s loyalty to Woody has never wavered,” an insider told Shuter. “Whatever the world says, she still sees the man whom she loved – and one of her dearest friends.”
Love for Allen
The pair were lovers off-screen as well.
Though their romance was brief, it became one of the most defining relationships of her life. Friends say her affection for Allen endured through the controversies that later surrounded him – and even as she went on to charm screen legends Al Pacino and Warren Beatty.
“Diane always had this deep, strange affection for Woody that never went away,” claimed a source close to the actress. “Even when she was seeing Al or Warren, there was this sense that Woody had her heart. She called him her ‘cockroach,’ which was her way of saying he was indestructible – impossible to get rid of.”
The movie star’s devotion to Allen was well documented in her 2012 memoir Then Again, in which she wrote, “I miss Woody. He’d cringe if he knew how much I care about him, but I’m smart enough not to broach the subject. He’s borderline repulsed by the grotesque nature of my affection.”
Keaton’s ‘Secret Illness’
Keaton supported Allen amid his controversies.
Before her death, Keaton’s friends say they feared the beloved Oscar-winning actress was battling a secret illness – after noticing her dramatic weight loss and growing frailty.
Sources close to the Hollywood star speculated Keaton’s death may have been caused by complications linked to a recurrence of skin cancer, the same disease she had battled twice before.
Those close to her said the decline was “sudden and shocking,” with some friends admitting they had begun to worry her cancer had returned when her weight dropped dramatically over the summer.
“Everyone noticed she’d lost a lot of weight very quickly,” a longtime friend claimed. “She looked fragile, which was unusual for someone with so much spirit. We were all scared it might be her cancer again, but she didn’t want anyone fussing over her.”
The friend added Keaton kept “everything” private and was determined to face her illness on her own terms.
