Gene Hackman’s wife took great care of her husband in his declining years according to friends of the couple.

Tom Allin, a longtime friend said the Oscar winner once said he would have died ‘long ago’ if wife Betsy Arakawa had not been there to take care of him.

‘She was very protective of him,’ Allin told The New York Times, adding that the Unforgiven actor appeared comfortable to have his wife running things.

During their 20+ year friendship, Allin said it was Arakawa who set up her husband’s golf dates and visits from pals, via email or the phone as Hackman didn’t seem interested in technology.

He also recalled Arakawa, a classically trained pianist from Hawaii, mixing soda water into Hackman’s wine and made sure The French Connection star ate healthfully.

‘She just really looked after him,’ Allin said.

Gene Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa,  took great care of her husband in his declining years according to friends of the couple   (Pictured in Beverly Hills in January 2003)

The actor, 95, and his wife Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead at their Santa Fe, New Mexico home on February 26. 

Autopsies on the couple, who were married for some 34 years, determined that Arakawa died first on February 11, of hantavirus, a caused by exposure to rodent feces. 

The medical examiner believes the Under Suspicion star, who had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, died about a week later, on February 18. 

The couple did not appear to have a anyone to assist Arakawa in her caretaking duties for her ailing husband. 

The couple met at a fitness center in Los Angeles where Arakawa was working part-time and refused to let the actor in after he forgot his entry card. 

They married in 1991, and did not let the 30 year age gap bother them. 

‘That part never came to mind because they seemed equal in so many ways,’ family friend Susan Contreras told the publication.

Speaking of Arakawa, Contreras contended, ‘She was a personality unto herself.’ 

Family friend Tom Allin told The New York Times that Hackman once said he would have died ‘long ago’ if wife Betsy Arakawa had not been there to take care of him   (Pictured in Rancho Mirage, CA in November 1991)

Allin said Hackman was not interested in technology, so Arakawa would take care of scheduling his golf dates and visits with friends   

The medical examiner ruled that Arakawa, 65, died of Hantavirus, on February 11.  Hackman, who had advanced Alzheimer’s disease, was believed to have passed away on February 18 at age 95   (Pictured in Beverly Hills in November 1992)

Friends Daniel and Barbara Lenihan told People the couple were ‘essentially kind of homebound’ due to Hackman’s Alzheimer’s. 

They revealed Arakawa tried to keep him busy with activities such as puzzles and doing yoga classes via Zoom. 

‘They seemed like real life partners, really, really close to each other, and they were both incredibly kind,’ the Lenihan’s son Aaron told the outlet. 

‘They were reserved, but they were real, [and] a lot of fun.’