Billy Connolly opens up about Robin Williams suicide

TORONTO — Scottish comedian Billy Connolly said his 30-year friendship with Robin Williams began on a Canadian talk show.

“He is a stunning guy… You notice I don’t speak about him in the past tense?” Connolly said in a new interview. “It’s still not sunk in, I keep expecting him to walk in.”

Williams took his life in August. He was 63.

“It broke my heart when he died,” Connolly told the UK’s Mirror. “I was in Malta with my family and my children were all crying. They all loved him.”

The 71-year-old funnyman said Williams called him just days before he took his life to thank him for giving him advice on living with Parkinson’s.

“During the call he kept telling me he loved me. I said ‘I know’. But he kept repeating it saying ‘do you really know I love you’. I was thinking what the f*** is he on about?

“After his death I thought ‘oh my God he was saying goodbye.'”

Connolly said he will remember Williams as a good man.

“He was such a joy, he never had a bad word to say about anybody,” said Connolly. “I enjoy bitching about people. He would just laugh. I never heard him do that ever.”

Connolly has himself gone through a challenging period of his life.

Last week he had emergency surgery to remove gallstones. In August he had his prostate removed due to cancer and nearly died of a blood clot in his leg.

A year ago he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

“I have had 71 incredible years,” Connolly said. “I had pneumonia in my 20s but nothing since then. I guess you get your lot. Some have it sprinkled through their life and others get it, whammy at the end.”