Mark-Paul Gosselaar says death of Dustin Diamond 'shocking'

Mark-Paul Gosselaar expressed his grief at the sudden passing of his "Saved by the Bell" co-star Dustin Diamond from cancer in an interview with Tamron Hall on Tuesday.

Gosselaar, who played the heartthrob Zack Morris on the show opposite Diamond's nerdy Screech, admitted that his co-star's death took him by surprise. He explained that it was shocking since he only found out about the cancer diagnosis three weeks ago.

"Well, it's always tough when someone passes away. I think it's even more so when the individual is someone you know and the age of Dustin — it was only a few weeks ago that we heard about his diagnosis and for it to happen so quickly is shocking," he said in an interview on the "Tamron Hall Show."

The 46-year-old "Mixed-ish" star said Diamond's death "happened so quickly" that his "Saved by the Bell" co-stars were "all just pretty shocked about it." He revealed that the original cast "will get together at some point and sort of express our feelings."

In the same interview, Gosselaar looked back at his time on the show with the late actor. Aside from "Saved by the Bell," he also worked with Diamond on "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" from 1988 to 1994. He shared that they drifted apart over the years even though they spent most of their younger years together.

"A lot of people may not understand that you can work with somebody for years — you can be very close, you see this person every day for an entire season of shooting and then once things wrap, the camera stops, you just drift apart. There's no reason other than just things happen in life and before you know it, years have passed," he explained.

"I think that was what happened with Dustin with the rest of the cast. There was a time when I wasn't talking with anybody on the cast," he added.

Gosselaar was among those from "Saved by the Bell" who mourned Diamond's death at the age of 44. The actor died on Monday from a short battle with carcinoma. His agent shared there was nothing the doctors or even the treatments could do since the cancer cells had already spread throughout his body,