Gene Hackman’s wife died from a rare infectious disease around a week before the actor died, medical investigators have said.

The couple were found dead in their New Mexico home on 26 February, along with one of their pet dogs. Police have previously said there were no apparent signs of foul play.

At a press conference on Friday, chief medical investigator for New Mexico, doctor Heather Jarrell, gave an update on the results of post-mortem investigations carried out following their deaths.

Doctor Jarrell said Hackman’s wife, Betsy Arakawa, died from hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, a rare infectious disease. There were no signs of trauma and the death was a result of natural causes, she said.

The doctor said Arakawa likely died on 11 February, the date she was last known to have communicated with people via email.

She said Hackman had advanced Alzheimer’s and died from heart disease, with data from his pacemaker last registering on 18 February.

Due to his Alzheimer’s, “it’s quite possible he was not aware that [his wife] was deceased,” Dr Jarrell added.

The actor tested negative for hantavirus, a rare disease spread by infected rodent droppings.

Humans can contract hantavirus by breathing in contaminated air, and symptoms can start as soon as one week, or as long as eight weeks, later. It is not transmissible from person to person.

There were just seven confirmed cases of hantavirus in New Mexico last year, and Arakawa is the only person confirmed to have contracted it in the state in 2025. Between 1975 and 2023, New Mexico recorded a total of 129 hantavirus cases, with 52 deaths.

Santa Fe County sheriff Adan Mendoza said authorities are still waiting for data from mobile phones found at the property, but it is “very unlikely they are going to show anything else”.

“There’s no indication” that Hackman used a mobile phone or any other technology to communicate and the couple lived a very private life before their deaths, he added.

The cause of the couple’s dog’s death has not been confirmed but it is now known that Arakawa had picked the animal up from the vet, where it had undergone a procedure, on 9 February.

The procedure “may explain why [the dog] was in a crate at the residence” while two surviving dogs were found roaming the property, Mr Mendoza said.

Hackman, who was widely respected as one of the greatest actors of his generation, was a five-time Oscar nominee who won the best actor in a leading role for The French Connection in 1972 and best actor in a supporting role for Unforgiven two decades later.

More from Sky News:
The Damned founding member dies
King Charles reveals his favourite music

At last Sunday’s Academy Awards, Morgan Freeman paid tribute to Hackman. “A community lost a giant and I lost a dear friend,” he said.

He met Arakawa, a concert pianist, in the mid-1980s and the pair married in 1991.

Donald Trump has said Russia has “all the cards” in negotiations to end the war with Ukraine.

Speaking at the White House, the US president reiterated his desire to get a deal done to end the conflict, which he warned “could lead to World War Three”.

Trump latest: US president addresses latest tariff changes

But he said he had found it “more difficult” to deal with Ukraine, and suggested it may be easier to deal with Moscow, because “they have all the cards”.

He was also asked if Vladimir Putin was taking advantage of the decision by the US to stop sharing intelligence with Ukraine, following a series of air attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent days.

“I think he’s doing what anyone else would do,” Mr Trump replied.

However, he said he believed Mr Putin wanted to get the war “stopped and settled”.

“I think both parties want to settle. I think we are going to get it settled,” he added.

Mr Trump also suggested his priorities are in a different order to Ukraine’s – saying he wants the fighting to end before any security guarantees are made.

“Before I even think about that, I want to settle the war, get it finished,” he said.

“As far as the question about security later, that’s the easy part. The hard part is getting it settled.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly said his country needs “reliable and clear” security guarantees before a peace deal with Russia can be agreed.

Follow Trump 100 on your podcast app

Relations between the US and Ukraine have become fractured in recent weeks.

Mr Trump’s latest comments come exactly a week after his disastrous Oval Office meeting with Mr Zelenskyy – which saw the US president and his vice president, JD Vance, berate the Ukrainian leader and accuse him of being “disrespectful”.

Read more:
The 5 Rs guiding Trump’s world view
Trump pauses most Mexico and Canada tariffs

In the days since, the Trump administration has paused military aid to Ukraine and stopped sharing US intelligence with Kyiv.

Officials from Ukraine and the United States will next week hold talks about peace with Russia in Saudi Arabia.

Fuelled by expectations of a Wall Street-friendly policy platform, a “Trump bump” pushed the S&P 500 up 2.5% by the time the ticker tape had been cleared.

The rally continued after his inauguration, with the index peaking 6.3% higher by mid-February.

Since then, however, a “Trump slump” has sent markets crashing back to where they started, accelerating in the last week of unpredictable moves.

Money blog: Pound set for rise against dollar

The reality of an economic program built on trade wars saw the S&P hand back all its post-election gains by Tuesday, then fall further as tariffs imposed by executive order were removed by presidential whim.

That Trump turned to tariffs should be no surprise.

They were a central campaign promise, the “most beautiful word” in the president’s limited lexicon. The belligerence and unpredictability with which they have been deployed, however, has left markets spinning.

On Tuesday, Trump placed tariffs on America’s three largest trading partners, two of whom – Mexico and Canada – it has a free-trade agreement with. They both faced 25% levies on exports to the US (10% on the Canadian heavy crude oil on which the US still depends to keep petrol prices down) while levies on Chinese imports doubled to 20%.

Within 48 hours, the measures against Mexico and Canada were paused, leaving US businesses, economists, and trading partners wondering whether, for all his bluster, market sentiment could be a brake on the president’s ambition.

That tariffs are costly, disruptive and divisive is not in question.

Faced with huge price rises, importers have two choices: to absorb the additional cost by cutting profit margins, investment and ultimately growth, or pass them on to customers, increasing prices.

The impact was broad and immediate, sowing confusion and chaos.

The US car industry and its suppliers saw three changes to trading arrangements in 48 hours; executives of major retailers including the giant Target warned of price increases; while three north-eastern US states faced soaring energy bills as a result of counter-tariffs from Ontario that threatened supply.

Unclear motivation

What is less clear is whether Trump’s motivation is economic or political.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent suggested on Friday it is both.

In an interview with CNBC, he said the tariffs were intended to address America’s fentanyl crisis, providing leverage to persuade Canada and Mexico to tackle cross-border smuggling, and China to curb the flow of precursor chemicals.

But Mr Bessent also insisted the Trump program will require consumers to “detox” from government support while they wait for the private sector to provide the jobs and wage growth required to outpace inflation.

That sounds like a more fundamental reset, one in which the value of the dollar, falling all week, is less of a priority.

Read more:
Barclays and Brookfield close to £650m UK payments deal
Boots’ owner sold to private equity firm

For the president and some of those close to him, tariffs are ideological.

Their protectionist argument is that cheap imported consumer goods have hollowed out American manufacturing, with the resulting trade deficits amounting to a tax on American jobs.

Imposing tariffs runs the theory, discourages imports and encourages manufacturing at home.

But that is a long-term correction, with the short-term cost borne by American companies and consumers and, in turn, a global economy that still orbits around the US.

There will be further tests in the coming weeks, with the White House due to announce a global reciprocal tariff regime, including the EU and UK, on 2 April.

By then we may have a better sense of whether Mr Trump’s popularity, and his ego, can withstand a market downturn, rising prices, and the criticism that would come with them.