Jeana Keough, 64, has learned how Matt Keough tragically passed away at 64 years old. “He had a pulmonary embolism,” The Real Housewives of Orange County star EXCLUSIVELY told HollywoodLife on May 8, six days after her ex-husband sadly died. Jeana added that the blood clot was in Matt’s lungs, but the health condition was blindsiding to the former Oakland Athletics player’s family.
“He wasn’t sick,” Jeana revealed. However, there was a big shakeup in Matt’s lifestyle leading up to the MLB pro’s death. Matt, a gifted athlete who loved to take advantage of the outdoors, was not used to just “staying at home” amid the coronavirus pandemic. “He was used to riding his bike 30 miles a day or 20 miles a day so probably the inactivity,” Jeana shared, although she couldn’t confirm what exactly caused the pulmonary embolism. As for how a blood clot blocked Matt’s pulmonary artery in his lungs (the cause of a pulmonary embolism), that remains a mystery to Jeana. “So young and pretty reasonably healthy. That’s a guy who never ate sugar and ate really healthy,” she said, adding that there was “no family history” of the condition.
Although Jeana wasn’t in the room with Matt when he died, she could share details of the shocking moment it happened. The baseball star was simply eating lunch with his girlfriend, Claudia, in his living room. “He was watching the races. His favorite thing to do every day, he would watch the races,” Jeana told HollywoodLife. “It’s his father [MLB star Marty Keough], something he and his father did…[when] Matt was little they would go to the horse races. So wherever we would travel, they didn’t have horse races, we would find dog races. He loved watching competitions.” Matt’s girlfriend had left the living room “for a few minutes” and when Claudia returned, “she thought he might be sleeping and then she realized he wasn’t,” Jeana recalled.
Jeana has not lost just one loved one, but two. Just four days before Matt passed, her daughter Kara Bosworth and son-in-law Kyle Bosworth lost their second child to childbirth complications. “You know what to lose a grandchild and an ex husband in less than three weeks — It’s been rough,” Jeana confessed. The rest of the family is reeling over the double loss as well. “They’re all taking it badly,” Jeana shared, referring to the three children she shares with Matt: sons Shane, 33, and Colton, 28, and their daughter, Kara, 32, who was already mourning the loss of her newborn.
For now, Matt’s family is holding off on a funeral. “With Matt, we’re waiting. You know, he had to do autopsies and we have sent his brain off to be studied. So we wouldn’t have done a funeral for a few weeks anyway,” she explained. “We’re waiting closer to maybe a week before baseball starts so just baseball friends can be there. I was never a big fan of funerals anyway.”
Matt was married to Jeana between 1984-2007, and he even made appearances in the earlier seasons of RHOC. The impressive athlete made his mark in baseball as a right-hand pitcher, playing nine seasons in the Major Baseball League between 1977-1986.