Inside Diane Keaton’s Final Days Before Her Death — Even Her Closest Friends Didn’t Know

News of Diane Keaton dying at 79 hit hard and fast, and it came with almost no official detail. Her family asked for privacy after she passed on October 11 in California, and that was that. Since then, a few friends and neighbors have quietly filled in pieces of what her final months looked like — and some of it is surprising.

What friends and neighbors are saying

Radar Online spoke with a friend who says Keaton kept whatever was going on very close to the vest. The way they tell it, even people who had known her forever were kept at arm's length while her immediate family handled things. That privacy matches what neighbors in Brentwood describe: up until a few months ago, they regularly saw her out walking her dog, fully Diane-coded — same outfit, a hat, those signature sunglasses no matter what the weather was doing. They call her funny, chatty, a little eccentric in the best old-Hollywood way, and the kind of person who would talk to her dog like he was a person. None of that reads like someone slowing down.

'She declined very suddenly, which was heartbreaking for everyone who loved her. It was so unexpected, especially for someone with such strength and spirit.'

Another wrinkle: songwriter Carole Bayer Sager told PEOPLE she saw Keaton two or three weeks before she died and was shocked by how thin she was. She says they had not seen each other as much because Keaton had relocated to Palm Springs after the devastating wildfires, and when she came back, the weight loss was hard to miss. Sager also painted a very Keaton picture — happy, upbeat, snapping photos of everything, always making something. The two recently teamed up on Keaton's only solo single, 'First Christmas (2024),' which Sager says Keaton loved in an almost childlike way.

As of now, no cause of death has been shared.

Her health history, in her own past words

Keaton never publicly talked about any illness this year, but over the years she was candid about two separate battles — skin cancer and bulimia — and how long they shadowed her life.

• Skin cancer at 21: She told the Los Angeles Times it runs in the family — her aunt Martha had such severe skin cancer she lost her nose, her father had basal cell, and her brother dealt with it too. Keaton admitted she ignored sun care when she was young and only got serious about sunscreen in her 40s, something she said had 'dogged' her well into adulthood. Decades later she was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma and needed two surgeries to remove it.
• Bulimia that started with a Broadway audition: Being told to lose 10 pounds spiraled into an eating disorder. On Dr. Oz, she called herself an addict in recovery and described a 'typical' binge back then as extreme: think a bucket of fried chicken, multiple fries drowned in blue cheese and ketchup, a couple of TV dinners, a quart of soda, piles of candy, a whole cake, plus three banana cream pies. After someone suggested she might be dealing with mental health issues, she went to an analyst five times a week. She later told PEOPLE she felt like an outsider during that period, called the behavior sick and creepy, said bulimia eats up hours of your day, and that it even cost her memories from her Broadway run.
• On aging and beauty: In 2014 she published 'Let's Just Say It Wasn't Pretty,' a book about beauty, getting older, and refusing to contort yourself to fit someone else's idea of either.

The part that doesn't quite add up

There is a strange contrast here: a woman neighbors still saw out walking her dog not long ago, and friends who say her decline was sudden and largely private. It sounds like the circle around her closed ranks late in the game — which, to be fair, is very on brand for someone who valued her privacy and her control over the narrative.

What remains

Whether you come to Keaton through Annie Hall, The Godfather, or any of the later comedies that let her run wild, the throughline is easy: a singular presence, relentlessly creative, funny and fearless. That legacy is untouched by how little we know about her final days.

If you have a favorite Keaton performance or interview moment, drop it in the comments. I have a feeling there are a lot.