Mark-Paul Gosselaar is opening up about his relationship with the late Dustin Diamond.
During the latest episode of his podcast, “Zack to the Future”, the “Saved By The Bell” alum, 47, talked about his memories of his co-star.
Diamond died in February following his battle with stage IV lung cancer. He was 44.
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“It’s no secret that the rest of the cast wasn’t very close with Dustin toward the end of his life,” Gosselaar said to his co-host, Dashiell Driscoll. “The only thing I can say is there’s really nothing that caused that. Some people will speculate that, ‘Oh, well, he wrote a book,’ ‘Oh, he did this,’ ‘Oh, he did that.’ I know for me I would look at that and just go, ‘You know what? That’s Dustin.’ I could see where he would have to do things to make ends meet. [I] never took it personally.”
While addressing fan questions about why Gosselaar didn’t talk about his relationship with Diamond right after his tragic passing, he explained, “The respect I have for him is immense. He was a good actor. He was a good friend.”
He added, “My memories of him are all positive, and I feel for all of his family and friends.”
Gosselaar also recalled the last time he saw Diamond.
“We did a Comic-Con back in 2019. I saw him. He looked healthy. I met his girlfriend. We had a nice little conversation and took some photos with some of the fans. That was it,” he explained. “We didn’t talk after that,” the star said. “What a lot of people don’t understand is that you can work with somebody for many years [and not talk to them again]… It’s a sad thing about the business, but it does happen.”
