Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe D Dipasupil/FilmMagic
American Pickers’ Mike Wolfe is getting candid about his costar and good friend Frank Fritz’s opioid habit.
“Right here’s the deal,” Wolfe, 60, advised Individuals in an interview revealed on Monday, November 4. “I don’t have the correct to inform his story — solely he does. However I do have, I really feel, the correct to inform the non-public story of how myself and so many individuals struggled to navigate what was happening in his life.”
In response to Wolfe, he and Fritz had been each navigating “relationships that had been falling aside” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which collided with Fritz coping with a again harm and present process surgical procedure.
Wolfe known as the day off because of the pandemic and Fritz’s surgical procedure a “excellent storm.” Wolfe added, “He grew to become hooked on opioids, and that’s when every little thing modified.”
American Pickers stars Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe had a whole lot of ups and downs of their decades-long friendship. The pair started working collectively on hit sequence in 2009 and the present premiered on the Historical past Channel the next yr. The sequence adopted Wolfe and Fritz’s travels throughout america trying to find antiques to […]
The pair’s interior circle subsequently had an intervention. A month later, Wolfe mentioned Fritz was optimistic about how he was doing — however regardless of Fritz’s suggestion that issues had been OK, Wolfe mentioned his wrestle was noticeable.
When filming resumed for American Pickers, Wolfe claimed to have “fought actually arduous” to get Fritz into rehab. After manufacturing requested for damaging drug checks, Fritz couldn’t present them.
“The community simply lastly made the choice,” Wolfe mentioned. “They’re identical to, ‘Hear, we’ve got to maneuver on. Now we have to maintain going with this.’ I had blended feelings about doing that … and we had been simply attempting to determine what we had been going to do.”
Fritz, who hosted American Pickers for 10 years after its 2010 debut with Wolfe, exited the sequence in 2021.
Fritz died at age 60 on September 30. His rep advised TMZ in October that Fritz died from the results of a stroke and was in a hospice facility surrounded by mates on the time of his loss of life. In the future after Fritz’s loss of life, Wolfe shared the information in a tribute through Instagram.
“It’s with a damaged coronary heart that I share with all of you that Frank handed away final evening,” Wolfe wrote in October. “I’ve identified Frank for greater than half my life and what you’ve seen on TV has all the time been what I’ve seen, a dreamer who was simply as delicate as he was humorous. The identical off digicam as he was on, Frank had a manner of reaching the hearts of so many by simply being himself.”
“Who would have ever dreamed we’d share the cockpit of a white cargo van in entrance of thousands and thousands of individuals occupied with our adventures. Earlier than the present we’d take off collectively to locations we by no means knew existed with no vacation spot in thoughts and simply the shared ardour to find one thing attention-grabbing and historic,” Wolfe continued. “We’ve been on numerous journeys and shared so many miles and I really feel blessed that I used to be there by his aspect when he took one final journey dwelling. I like you buddy and can miss you a lot I do know your [sic] in a greater place.”
For those who or somebody is battling substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration (SAMHSA) Nationwide Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).