Diane Keaton’s SoulCycle Instructor Reveals the ‘Endearing’ Thing the Star Always Said Before Leaving Class (Exclusive)

“She would make sure to come up to me,” SoulCycle instructor Alba Verela remembers

Diane Keaton in Beverly Hills, March, 2023.Credit : 

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NEED TO KNOW

Diane Keaton was a “consistent” SoulCycle rider years before her death, instructor Alba Verela exclusively tells PEOPLE
The Oscar-winning actress “would always sit all the way in the back” and afterward, “she would make sure to come up to me”
Keaton died on Saturday, Oct. 11, at the age of 79

Diane Keaton had an “endearing” message for her SoulCycle instructor every time the Oscar-winner took her “starstruck” coach’s class.

The actress, who died Saturday, Oct. 11, at the age of 79, was an avid SoulCycle rider years before her death, instructor Alba Verela tells PEOPLE.

A lifelong fan of Keaton’s, Verela met the Annie Hall star in 2015 when Keaton took her Saturday 10 a.m. “SoulSurvivor” class at SoulCycle’s studio in Santa Monica, Calif., for the first time.

“I was completely starstruck,” Verela recalls. “I remember the front desk [staff] coming up to me [and saying], ‘Diane Keaton’s in your class.’”

A SoulCycle instructor for 13 years, Verela tells PEOPLE she thought the staff was messing with her, telling them, “You guys know I freaking love Diane Keaton.”

Diane Keaton is all smiles while out enjoying a Sunday morning stroll with her dog in November, 2021.BACKGRID

Keaton then began regularly attending Verela’s class. “Pretty much every Saturday at 10 a.m., for my SoulSurvivor class, Diane Keaton was there,” Verela says. “She was consistent.”

The instructor adds, “I was starstruck every time she would come to class.” Verela says she would think to herself, “I can’t believe Diane Keaton is back again.”

Keaton “did good” and “went at her own pace,” she recalls.

Usually one of the last people to leave the class, Keaton always thanked Verela after her ride.

“Every single time, she would come up to me after class, and I remember [her] specifically telling me, ‘Thank you, Alba. I had so much fun,'” Verela recalls. “She would make sure to come up to me and thank me right above my handlebars.”

SoulCycle instructor Alba Verela.Courtesy of Alba Verela

Verela was blown away by Keaton’s kindness. “I was grateful for that interaction with her,” she shares. “She was such a nice lady. Because not usually would you get a celebrity [to] come up to your bike handlebars and thank you for the class and tell you that they had fun.”

She continues, “It just meant the world to me. I felt seen by Diane Keaton. She would call me by my name, which I loved. I was like, ‘Oh my God, she knows my name. She likes my class.’ And then I would see her again the following Saturday, and [the front desk staff would say], ‘Diane Keaton’s back.’ I would get so excited to see her.”

Keaton was “very present” and “someone who was just so grateful,” Verela adds. “I just remember her smile and the way she looked at me. It was very endearing.”

According to Verela, the star chose the same bike every time she took her class: bike 47. Verela says Keaton “would always sit all the way in the back” of SoulCycle’s Santa Monica studio. The location holds 60 bikes — the most of any SoulCycle studio in Southern California — and is “very deep,” with a wall in the middle “that would block you from seeing the other riders,” Verela adds. Bike 47 is “right against that wall,” located “in the middle of the 60 bikes,” towards the back of the class, she explains.

“That was always her bike: bike 47,” she says. “That bike doesn’t have another bike next to it because of the wall. “

The instructor also remembers that Keaton usually wore “a long sleeve shirt and glasses and “always had her white towel” around her neck for the entire class.

Verela was “completely in shock” when she learned Keaton had died.

Keaton’s words of appreciation are perhaps the most “amazing” memories of the movie star that Verela will keep with her. “Celebrities,” she adds, rarely get that “close to you.”