“American Pickers” star Frank Fritz has had a rough last two years of his life, according to his close friend.
Jerry Gendreau told The Sun in an interview published Wednesday that Fritz never recovered after being hospitalized with a stroke in July 2022.
“He felt really bad,” Gendreau said of Fritz, who died Sept. 30 at age 60.
Fritz’s rep previously told TMZ that the star died following his stroke.
“You would go see him at the nursing home and half his body was completely finished,” Gendreau told The Sun. “He would raise his arm and it would just fall. It must be hard to be totally bedridden.
Fritz has had a number of health problems in recent years. In addition to suffering a stroke, he suffered from Crohn’s disease and underwent back surgery in 2021, which left him with 185 stitches and two rods in his spine.
Gendreau explained that after the stroke, Fritz became “frustrated” because he “couldn’t come out and say what he wanted to say.”
“I’ve seen that when people are tired, they’re tired. I think if you don’t have the will to live, you won’t,” Gendreau said. “I think Frank could have lived a lot longer if the will to live had been there.”
Gendreau said he will remember Fritz for always being true to himself.
“Frank was pretty much what you see is what you get, man. His flaws were his flaws,” the late star’s friend shared. “You can’t blame anyone for being who they are. He was right, it was good, and it was bad, it was a bad kind of person. He made history.
Fritz died at an Iowa hospice while surrounded by friends, including former co-star Mike Wolfe.
“I have [known] Frank for more than half my life and what you saw on TV was always what I saw, a dreamer as sensitive as he was funny,” Wolfe, 60, said in a statement after Frank’s death. Fritz.
“The same off camera as on camera, Frank had a way of reaching the hearts of so many by simply being himself,” he added.
Fritz and Wolfe fell out after ten years together hosting the History Channel series. They went back and forth on social media in 2021 after Fritz left the show due to his health.
“I haven’t spoken to Mike in two years,” Fritz told The Sun in a 2021 interview. “He knew my back was a mess, but he didn’t call me to ask how I was doing . That’s how it is.
In July 2022, Wolfe announced that his former co-star had suffered a stroke.
“There have been a lot of opinions regarding my friendship with Frank and the show, but now is not the time to set the record straight,” Wolfe said at the time. “Now is the time to pray for my friend.”
Wolfe added: “Frank, I pray more than anything that you come out of this well. I love you buddy.
Despite a period of tension between them, the two men were reportedly on better terms before Fritz’s death.
