‘I Told Him I Loved Him’ (Exclusive)

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, Wolfe speaks for the first time about healing his friendship with Fritz and the emotional moment they shared before his death

When American pickers star Mike Wolfe calls from his home in Tennessee, taking a deep breath before describing his late best friend, Frank Fritz.

Fritz was the cool kid in high school, a homeowner at 19 – and the heart of their favorite History Channel show. “He was very much on camera. He was very sensitive. He was very caring. He was extremely funny. His sense of comedic timing was incredible,” Wolfe, 60, says with a chuckle. “Actually, the crew and I always told him to do stand-up because he was always very self-deprecating.”

“He was one of those guys, no matter who we spoke to, he could always put people at ease and let them know they were being listened to,” he continues, noting how they bonded over being in their lives received similar cards.

Fritz and Wolfe – who first met in high school – had both grown up without fathers, and the struggles they faced as they “went through life” brought them closer together.

Related: Inside American pickers‘The decades-long friendship of Frank Fritz and Mike Wolfe: from consequences to reconciliation

“He was an extremely hard worker. He was like no one I had ever met in my life,” Wolfe said.

When Wolfe had the original idea to pitch American pickersa reality show that spanned more than fifteen seasons, Fritz was the only person who “didn’t fool me,” he recalls.

Despite the naysayers in their small Iowa town, Fritz believed they were on the brink of something big. In 2010, season one debuted on the History Channel – and their lives changed forever.

But fame and success brought unexpected challenges. In one 2021 interview with The sunFritz revealed that he had sought treatment for alcohol abuse before his departure American pickers. He also claimed that he I hadn’t spoken to Wolfe in two years and admitted that he felt like he came in “second place” while Wolfe was considered “No. 1” in the eyes of the show.

“There was a lot of noise. That’s a nice way of putting it,” Wolfe says of Fritz’s headline-making interview. “This is so hard for me to talk about because a lot of things were said that weren’t true, and I never stopped praying for him. But unfortunately, the things we want for someone…sometimes (it’s) just not enough, and they have to want these things for themselves.”

Related: ‘American Pickers’ ‘ Danielle Colby is speaking out amid Mike Wolfe’s strained relationship with Frank Fritz

During the pandemic, Wolfe and Fritz both suffered from “relationships that fell apart‘ he says. Around the same time, Fritz hurt his back while moving some things at home and had to undergo surgery.

“Now that he was out and he had surgery, it was like the perfect storm,” Wolfe says cautiously. “He became addicted to opioids, and then everything changed.”

“Here’s the deal,” he continues, protective of his dead friend. “I don’t have the right to tell his story – only he does. But I do, I think, have the right to tell the personal story of how I and so many people struggled to navigate what was going on in his life. “

Wolfe recalls several attempts to help Frank amid his addiction problems. He organized an intervention with Fritz’s relatives and other people who loved him.

“I remember running into him a month later. He said he would handle everything on his own, and I asked him how he was doing. He said, ‘I’m doing well. I’m doing well. No. , I’m fine.’ “It’s going really well.” And a month later he was gone,” he says. “And it was really hard to watch Frank do some of the things he did.”

When filming resumed, Wolfe knew his friend was still struggling with addiction and “fought really hard to get him into rehab,” he says, underscoring that he “never gave up” on Fritz.

But when production requested negative drug tests, Fritz was unable to provide them.

“The network has finally made the decision,” Wolfe said. “They’re just saying, ‘Listen, we’ve got to move on. We’ve got to keep doing this.’ I had mixed feelings about doing that… and we were just trying to figure out what we were going to do.”

After Fritz left the show, Wolfe felt like “the last man standing,” he recalls.

Related: ‘American Pickers’ Frank Fritz ‘Needs Time to Heal’ After Stroke, Says Rep for Mike Wolfe

“I just had to take care of myself in a lot of ways. I could finish his sentences. He could finish my sentences,” he says. “I’m left-handed, but with him I felt ambidextrous.”

Losing Fritz’s friendship at that time was like “losing a brother,” Wolfe says. “And that’s why it was so hard to hear him say the things he said.”

Although Fritz’s words were hurtful, Wolfe knew they came from a place of pain: “I just wish he didn’t have to deal with all that stuff in the shadows… We can tell him how much we love him , and that we support and encourage him, (but) he could never get it together again.”

Wolfe acknowledges that the old friends had a rift, but now emphasizes that they “never disconnected.”

“I stepped away for a moment 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 says. “And everyone said, ‘Well, if his back is better… and I thought, ‘It’s not his back. That’s one thing, but we have to help him heal because he needs us right now.'”

“I never completely left him. That would be impossible for me. But I saw it all happen. I tried to help him as best I could, and we did talk,” he says.

After a while, the two finally reunited in an emotional reunion with lots of hugs, tears and laughter.

“It was beautiful. He was struggling with addiction. I know how judgmental the public can be. And that’s why it was so easy for me to forgive him when we finally spoke again, because I knew it wasn’t him speaking.” It was his addiction talking,” Wolfe says.

There were even talks of Fritz joining the show again. But in 2022 he was hospitalized after suffering a “really bad stroke” – and Wolfe knew his return would “never happen”.

Fritz’s health never recovered and on September 30 he died of stroke complications at the age of 60. When he took his last breath, Wolfe, his mother and Annette, the best friend of Fritz’s late mother, were by his side.

“I got the call that he wasn’t doing well. I feel blessed that I was able to get there,” Wolfe said. “I was there about an hour before he passed away, and I held his hand and rubbed his chest as he took his last breath. I took my fingers and closed his eyes.”

Related: American pickers‘ Frank Fritz dies two years after a stroke: ‘A dreamer who was as sensitive as he was funny’

In their last moments together, “I just told him that I wasn’t mad at him, that I loved him and that I cared about him so much,” Wolfe says. “And when I saw that he was having a hard time, I just said, ‘Just go find your mother. Go find her right now. Just go find her.'”

Saying goodbye was heartbreaking, but Wolfe finds comfort in knowing they remained close until the end.

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“Once he had the stroke and went into a facility, I saw him so many times and was able to talk to him very openly and lovingly about everything I ever wanted to say to him,” he says.

When it comes to how he wants people to remember his late best friend, Wolfe wants the world to focus on the joy Fritz spread among his fans.

“He was a beautiful, beautiful person who, to be honest, who knows what our lives would have been like if there had never been a show,” Wolfe says. “I just want people to know who he was.”