“American Pickers” star Mike Wolfe opened up about his ultimate moments with Frank Fritz earlier than his late co-star’s demise.
The 60-year-old TV persona and Fritz have been childhood pals who co-hosted the Historical past Channel sequence for 10 years and had identified one another for greater than 40 years.
The 2 had a falling-out and Fritz stepped away from the present throughout its twenty first season in 2020. Nevertheless, they have been capable of mend their friendship earlier than Fritz died from problems of a stroke on the age of 60 in September.
In an interview with Individuals journal, Wolfe recalled how he rushed to be by Fritz’s aspect earlier than his demise.
“I got the call that he wasn’t doing well. I just feel blessed that I was able to get there,” Wolfe stated.
“American Pickers” star Mike Wolfe recalled his ultimate moments along with his late co-star Frank Fritz. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Pictures)
He continued, “I was there for about an hour before he passed, and I was holding his hand and rubbing his chest when he took his last breath. I took my fingers and I closed his eyes.”
Wolfe instructed the outlet that he was joined at his late pal’s bedside by his mom and Fritz’s late mom’s greatest pal Annette, and recalled the heartfelt ultimate phrases he shared with Fritz earlier than his demise.
“I just told him that I wasn’t mad at him and that I loved him and that I cared about him so much,” Wolfe stated. “And then when I could see that he was struggling, I just said, ‘Just go find your mom. Go find her right now. Just go find her.'”
Throughout his interview with Individuals, Wolfe additionally mirrored on his relationship with Fritz, the rift that got here between them and the way they buried the hatchet.
Fritz died final month on the age of 60 as a result of problems from a stroke. (Getty Pictures)
Wolfe recalled that he and Fritz met whereas they have been in center college in Iowa and struck up a friendship.
“He was an extremely hard worker. He was like no one I’d ever met in my whole life,” Wolfe remembered.
Wolfe instructed the outlet that Fritz was the one one that supported him when he got here up with the thought for “American Pickers.”
The fact present was ultimately green-lit by A&E Networks and Fritz joined Wolfe as his co-star in “American Pickers,” which turned an on the spot hit when it premiered on the Historical past Channel in January 2010.
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“He was a lot like he was on camera,” Wolfe recalled of Fritz. “He was very sensitive. He was very caring. He was extremely funny. His sense of comedic timing was unbelievable.”
“Actually, the crew and myself would always tell him that he should do stand-up because he was always very self-deprecating,” he added.
“He was one of those guys, no matter who we talked to, he could always make people feel comfortable and let them know that they’re being heard.”
Wolfe and Fritz co-hosted “American Pickers” for 10 years. (Getty Pictures)
Nevertheless, rumors of a feud between the co-hosts started to swirl when Fritz all of a sudden stopped showing on “American Pickers” in 2020.
In a 2021 interview with The Solar, Fritz revealed that he had battled alcoholism earlier than leaving “American Pickers” and stated he hadn’t “talked to Mike in two years.”
“He knew my back was messed up, but he didn’t call me up and ask how I was doing,” Fritz stated of Wolfe. “That’s just how it is.”
Fritz additionally instructed that outlet that he believed “American Pickers” was “tilted towards him [Wolfe] 1,000%..”
“I can’t even bend that far down to show you how much,” he added. “I’m second and he’s number one on the show.”
“There was a lot of noise. That’s a nice way to put it,” Wolfe instructed Individuals of Fritz’s interview with The Solar. “This is so hard for me to talk about, because there were a lot of things that were said that weren’t true, and I always continued to pray for him. But unfortunately, the things that we want for someone… sometimes [it’s] just not enough, and they have to want these things for themselves.”
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Wolfe instructed Those that Fritz needed to endure surgical procedure after injuring his again.
“With that time off and him having surgery, it was like the perfect storm,” Wolfe stated. “He became addicted to opioids, and that’s when everything changed.”
Wolfe stated that he tried to assist Fritz plenty of occasions throughout his battle with dependancy. He instructed Those that he staged an intervention for Fritz along with his late co-star’s household and different shut pals.
Fritz all of a sudden stopped showing on the present in 2020. (CHANCE YEH/Patrick McMullan through Getty Pictures)
Wolfe stated he bumped into Fritz a couple of month after the intervention. “He said he was just going to handle everything on his own, and I asked him how he was doing. He said, ‘I’m fine. I’m fine. No, I’m really fine,'” Wolfe recalled.
“And then like a month later, he was gone,” he says. “And so watching Frank doing some of the things that he was doing, it was really hard.”
Wolfe stated that he nonetheless “fought really hard” to persuade Fritz to enter rehab and “never, ever gave up” on his pal.
Throughout this time, Wolfe recalled that manufacturing on “American Pickers” resumed. Wolfe instructed Those that the “network just finally made the decision” to proceed with out Fritz as a result of he could not present destructive drug assessments.
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“They’re just like, ‘Listen, we have to move on. We have to keep going with this,'” Wolfe stated. “I had mixed emotions about doing that… and we were just trying to figure out what we were going to do.”
Wolfe stated that he struggled with feeling like “the last man standing” after Fritz’s departure from the present.
“I was just kind of left to fend for myself in a lot of ways. I could finish his sentences. He could finish my sentences,” he says. “I’m a left-handed person, but with him I felt ambidextrous.”
Fox Information Digital has reached out to representatives for A&E Networks for remark.
The 2 had a falling-out however later mended their friendship. (Photograph by Charles Eshelman/FilmMagic)
Wolfe in contrast his rift with Fritz to “losing a brother,” telling Individuals, “And that’s why it was so hard to hear him say the things that he said.”
“I just wish that he didn’t have to deal with all of those things in the shadows,” he added. “We can tell him how much we love him, and that we support him and we’re encouraging him, [but] he could just never get it back together.”
Regardless of their falling-out, Wolfe instructed Those that he and Fritz “never disconnected.”
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“I stepped away for a little because I was watching what he was doing, but I still fought for him to go to rehab and I still had those conversations,” he stated.
Wolfe continued, “And everybody was like, ‘Well, when his back is better… and I’m like, ‘It’s not his back. That’s one thing, but we need to help heal him, because he needs us right now.'”
“I never stepped away from him completely,” he added. “That would be impossible for me to do. But I watched all of it unfold. I tried to help him as best I could, and we did speak.”
Wolfe was by Fritz’s aspect when his pal handed away. (Getty Pictures)
Nevertheless, Wolfe stated that he and Fritz later had an emotional reconciliation.
“It was beautiful,” Wolfe recalled. “He was struggling with addiction. I know how judgmental the public can be.
He continued, “And in order that’s why once we did find yourself talking once more, it was really easy for me to forgive him as a result of I knew it wasn’t him speaking. It was his dependancy speaking.”
Wolfe told People that there were conversations about Fritz’s potential return to “American Pickers” after they mended their rift.
In 2022, Fritz suffered a stroke and was hospitalized. Wolfe instructed Individuals he knew then that an on-screen reunion with Fritz “wasn’t ever going to occur” due to his former co-star’s health struggles.
However, Wolfe said that their friendship remained strong until Fritz’s death.
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“As soon as he had the stroke and he went right into a facility, I noticed him so many occasions and I used to be capable of communicate to him very candidly, and really lovingly, about every little thing that I ever needed to say to him,” Wolfe recalled.
When asked how he wanted Fritz to be remembered, Wolfe said, “He was a good looking, lovely person who, to be trustworthy with you, who is aware of what our lives would’ve been like if there was by no means a present.”
“I simply need folks to know who he was,” Wolfe added.
