With his voice cracking and tears streaming down his face, 25-year-old Duke Keaton whispered through sobs, “I should’ve been there… she told me she didn’t feel right.” Moments later, he sank to his knees outside his late mother’s Los Angeles home, clutching a small photograph of them together. Witnesses say Duke was inconsolable — repeating the same heartbreaking phrase as loved ones tried to comfort him.

Now, a mysterious handwritten note found inside Diane’s study is sending shockwaves through Hollywood, hinting at something the beloved actress had been hiding in her final days.

Diane Keaton’s grieving son Duke was seen for the first time after his mother’s death as he left the late actress’ LA home on Sunday.
Duke, 25, was dressed all in black as he mourned the loss of the Hollywood star who adopted him as a baby.

Yet he found a unique way to pay tribute to the Oscar winner – by wearing two cross necklaces in a look made famous by Diane.

She was renowned for her eccentric fashion sense which often included wearing multiple pieces of jewelry along with her signature hats.

Diane was 55 when she adopted the LA native in 2001, and she was 50 when she adopted her 29-year-old daughter Dexter in 1996.

‘They have no interest in what I do, which I think is very healthy,’ Keaton (born Hall) told People in 2007.

Duke, 25, found a unique way to pay tribute to his mother who adopted him as a baby — the Oscar winner — by wearing two cross necklaces in a look she made famous.

The eccentric Oscar winner — who leaves behind a reported $100M fortune — never wed despite heated romances with her castmates Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, and Woody Allen.

‘It goes back to my mother, because, for me, most everything does,’ Diane explained to Interview in 2021.

‘She had four kids, and I was the firstborn. I saw how much she gave up. I mentioned watching her get that crowning glory and being Mrs. Highland Park. After that, we moved down to Santa Ana, and it was over. There was no more trying things out. I feel like she chose family over her dreams.

‘And she was just the best mother, but I think that she is the reason why I didn’t get married. I didn’t want to give up my independence. By the way, no one has ever asked me to marry them, either, so that might be a good answer. I should’ve started with that and called it a day.’

Sarah Paulson was pictured visiting Keaton’s $29M five-bedroom ‘dream home’ in LA’s Sullivan Canyon on Sunday to pay her respects.

Ben Affleck’s black SUV was also pictured pulling up to the posh property on Sunday.

The Fashion First author had someone with her when she was taken to a local hospital by ambulance around 8:08 a.m. on Saturday morning after the LAFD received a 911 call reporting a ‘person down’ at her residence – according to TMZ.

The eccentric Oscar winner — who leaves behind a reported $100M fortune — never wed despite heated romances with her castmates Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Al Pacino, and Woody Allen (pictured in 2014).

Condolences streamed in from Diane’s A-list colleagues Leonardo DiCaprio, Jane Fonda, Reese Witherspoon, Sarah Jessica Parker, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, Viola Davis, Bette Midler, Francis Ford Coppola, and Rita Wilson.

‘I saw her two or three weeks ago, and she was very thin. She had lost so much weight,’ Carole Bayer Sager — who wrote Keaton’s debut single First Christmas — told People on Sunday.

‘She had to go to Palm Springs because her house had been damaged inside, and they had to clean everything. She was down there for a while, and when she came back, I was kind of stunned by how much weight she’d lost.’

The real estate flipper was all smiles beside her beloved Golden Retriever Reggie in her final Instagram post uploaded April 11 in honor of National Pet Day.

But Diane hadn’t made a public appearance since April 2024 when she glammed up for a Thom Browne-hosted dinner held at Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills.

Keaton’s final screen appearance was portraying Nora opposite Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard in Castille Landon’s 2024 senior comedy Summer Camp, which was poorly received and flopped at the box office by only earning $2.5M.

The two-time Golden Globe winner first found fame playing Michael Corleone’s (Al Pacino) second wife Kay Adams in The Godfather trilogy (1972–1990) and went on to star in eight Woody Allen movies including Annie Hall (1977).

Diane memorably portrayed the neurotic Annie MacDuggan-Paradis in Hugh Wilson’s 1996 divorce comedy The First Wives Club, which amassed $181M at the global box office.

Keaton frequently collaborated with writer-director Nancy Meyers in projects like Baby Boom (1987), the Father of the Bride trilogy (1991–2020), and Something’s Gotta Give (2003).

The Keaton Red winemaker received a career tribute at Film at Lincoln Center in 2007 and earned the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2017.