Billy Connolly Opens Up About His Last Conversation With Robin Williams

Williams committed suicide at the age of 63 in August 2014.

During the conversation with Buxton, which was recorded earlier this year but released yesterday, he explained how he and the Aladdin star had met up for a meal in Los Angeles a matter of days before Williams took his own life.

Connolly explained: "He [Williams] wasn't suicidal at all, he didn't have a history of it. It was really weird.

"He was on television on a sitcom, and I saw it and he was good. I emailed him and said 'I saw you on the show and you were great' because I'd seen him in a newspaper saying he wasn't sure about it."

"I was in Los Angeles and I got an email back saying 'glad you liked the show, I'm in LA too, can we meet for dinner?'.

"We met for dinner, he was looking very thin and kind of haggard about the face. I said 'are you looking after yourself?' and he said 'yeah, I've just lost a bit of weight recently'.

"I'd read that he'd been drinking, some journalist had said it, and I said 'I hear you're back on the sauce' and he said 'ah, it's nothing, I just gave it a bash, never mind'."

After his death, it was revealed that Williams had been suffering with dementia with Lewy bodies, a progressive illness that, amongst other side effects, commonly causes anxiety and depression.

Connolly continued: "Before we left, he said 'I love you, you know that, don't you?' and I said 'of course I know that'.

"He said 'are you sure you know it?' and I said 'yeah, it's good'.

"That was the last I said to him. Two days later he was dead.

"I've read things abut him where other people have said he was asking them about the love - 'do you know that I love you' - and my wife said he was just saying goodbye.

"It took me by surprise, because he was such a strong man."

Buxton's whole conversation with Connolly is available on all good podcast platforms, as well as on Spotify.