Woody Allen Reportedly ‘Distraught’ Over Friendly Ex Diane Keaton’s Death

They were a new take on the old formula of what made for a leading man and a leading lady, appearing in eight films together across 20 years. Though long since broken up romantically, Woody Allen and Diane Keaton remained friends, and entangled in each other’s legacies.

Now that Keaton has died unexpectedly at 79, Allen — a full 10 years older — is said to have been taken by surprise. People magazine reports the director is “extremely distraught” over the news.

A source tells the outlet that Allen, 89, feels Keaton’s passing “makes him think of his own mortality.”

While friendly, Keaton and Allen were not especially close — he had been unaware that her health was slipping, making her death all the more of a jolt.

Keaton appeared in Allen’s “Play It Again, Sam” (1972), “Sleeper” (1973), “Love & Death” (1975), “Annie Hall” (1977), “Interiors” (1978), “Manhattan” (1979), “Radio Days” (1987), and “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993).

In fact, Allen so considered his then-girlfriend his muse that he wrote “Annie Hall” for and about her. She won the Oscar for the part.

Though the two broke up many years prior, when Allen was accused of child sexual abuse by his adult daughter Dylan Farrow, Keaton went out on a limb for him, tweeting, “Woody Allen is my friend and I continue to believe him,” also writing, “It might be of interest to take a look at the ’60 Minutes’ interview from 1992 and see what you think.”

Allen celebrated Keaton at the 45th Annual AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony in 2017, where he said, “The minute I met her, she was a great, great inspiration to me. Much of what I’ve accomplished in my life I owe, for sure, to her. Seeing life through her eyes. She really is astonishing. This is a woman who is great at everything she does.”