Duane “Dog” Chapman has been through a lot in his life, but nothing, the Dog the Bounty Hunter star told Entertainment Tonight in a new interview, was worse than losing wife Beth Chapman, who died in June at 51 after a battle with cancer.
“It’s the worst thing you could ever go through,” Chapman told the outlet. “I’ve been to prison, I’ve been let out of prison. I’ve captured some of the worst sons of bitches in the world, and nothing is worse than this.”
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It’s now been six months since Beth passed, but for Chapman, it still feels like no time has passed at all.
“It seems like yesterday. Six whole months already. And pretty soon it will be a year. It’s really hard when you start thinking about how long it’s been,” he explained. “I think that’s the worst of all, because I can’t believe it’s been six months.”
“The first few months I didn’t care whether I lived or died,” he continued. “As a matter of fact I kept getting upset every time I woke up in the morning.”
Despite his admission of experiencing suicidal thoughts immediately after Beth’s death, Chapman said “things are slowly changing” and he is making significant changes in his life to get healthier.
“I’m doing much better with my health. I’ve almost quit smoking. That patch is a miracle. It’s just amazing and I’m taking blood thinners for the blood clot in my lung and exercising. I always have worked out every day and I’m double that now,” Chapman said. “So yeah, I need to live to get through my mission in life.”
Going into the new year, Chapman is happy to be moving on and focusing on his work while honoring his wife.
“What a terrible year I had,” he reflected. “Ended this year with Beth being gone, so I know that 2020 has got to be better cause nothing can be that bad.”
“I’m just gonna kick off the new year. I’m hoping to start season two on Dog’s Most Wanted right after the holidays are over and so I’m gonna be the most bounty hunter they’ve ever seen,” he continued. “We’re going to go after all the dangerous, no-good bastards that we can, so I’m kinda looking forward to beating up all the bad guys.”
Photo credit: starzfly/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images, Getty
