EXCLUSIVE: Diane Keaton 'Knew She Was Going to Die Last Year' — And How She Composed Christmas Song As 'Comfort Blanket' for 'Soon-to-be-Grieving' Adopted Children
Diane Keaton wanted to make sure to leave her kids with a memorable gift.
Oct. 14 2025, Published 7:20 p.m. ET
Diane Keaton spent her final months creating what she called her "comfort blanket" – a tender Christmas song she said was meant to console her "soon-to-be-grieving" children, RadarOnline.com can reveal. The Annie Hall star, who died on October 11 at age 79, had told friends she wanted her music to "wrap her family in love when she no longer could."
The Oscar-winning actress recorded First Christmas late last year – her first and only solo single – just months before her death.
A Song of Love and Farewell
Keaton spent her final months recording her first and only solo song.
The song, co-written with close friend and longtime collaborator Carole Bayer Sager and songwriter Jonas Myrin, tells of the ache of celebrating the holidays without a loved one. The lyrics now read like a haunting premonition, including the lines, "Now I wish that I could let go, it's a silent night, it's another year, the first Christmas without you here."
According to a music industry source who worked with her, Keaton had told friends she "knew her time was coming" and wanted to leave "something soft and lasting" for her children.
The insider claimed: "Diane told us this song wasn't just about loss – it was about love surviving it. She said, 'When I'm gone, I want them to play it and feel me still singing to them.'"
Keaton long collaborated closely with Sager, who described being "stunned" by the actress's frail appearance in her final weeks.
A source claimed of Keaton: "She was so thin at the end, but still had her glow and twinkle in her eye. She called the song her comfort blanket – a way to hold her kids when she couldn't. Working on First Christmas together was her way of saying goodbye without saying it."
Recording Her 'Comfort Blanket'
Keaton co-wrote the track with Carole Bayer Sager and Jonas Myrin.
Keaton and Sager first met in the 1980s and reconnected during the pandemic. Myrin, who played piano on the track, said Keaton poured her soul into the session.
He recalled: "To have been trusted to help bring her lifelong dream of recording an original song to life is something I'll carry with me forever. First Christmas, which I co-wrote with Carole and produced for Diane last year, became her first and final song, and now those words hold a meaning I could have never imagined."
Behind the scenes, friends said Keaton's health had deteriorated rapidly after the Los Angeles wildfires forced her to leave her longtime home. "She was heartbroken about losing that house," a close friend said.
"It wasn't just a property – it was part of her identity. After the move to Palm Springs, she became more reclusive. It's like she knew she needed peace to say goodbye on her own terms."
'First Christmas' became her final farewell to her children, Dexter and Duke.
Facing the End with Grace
Keaton shared on Instagram that the song brought her peace and comfort.
Sager recalled visiting her a few weeks before her death.
"I saw her two or three weeks ago, and she was very thin," she said. "She had lost so much weight. I was kind of stunned. But she was still full of ideas, talking about future songs. That's the part that breaks my heart – she wasn't done creating."
In November last year, when First Christmas was released, Keaton wrote on Instagram: "This song is so close to my heart. I hope it brings you some peace and comfort this holiday season, like it does for me."
At the time, fans praised the actress for revealing such a raw and vulnerable side of herself.
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A Mother’s Lasting Legacy
Friends feared she faced a secret cancer relapse before her death at 79.
Keaton had often spoken about her lifelong passion for music. "I had a fantasy of being a nightclub singer that I carried through even into my early twenties," she once said. "I sang a couple of gigs, but I was not very good. Still, I love singing ballads and sad songs – it's just so much fun."
The movie star, who became a mother in her 50s after adopting her daughter Dexter, now 29, and son Duke, 25, once said, "Motherhood was not an urge I could resist."
Friends say First Christmas was her way of ensuring her children would never face a "silent night without her voice."
Keaton twice battled skin cancer, and pals fear she had a secret diagnosis that the illness had returned last year – around the same time she recorded First Christmas.
