Duane “Dog” Chapman, star of Dog The Bounty Hunter, said he lost 17 pounds in the two weeks that followed his wife’s death, according to multiple reports.
Beth Chapman passed away at Hawaii’s Queen Medical Center at 5:30 a.m. on June 26, after losing her battle with cancer, ET Online reported. Chapman had since been struggling to come to terms with her death. Her passing had taken a toll on him, and the news outlet reported that he had a hard time adjusting to his regular life and routine without her by his side.
“I haven’t gotten past the place where I’m [not] putting a pillow where she was and covering it up. And then I wake up in the middle of the night and I see her, and it doesn’t register that [it] ain’t her. I’m still there,” he told ET Online.
“I always wake up to touch her, especially when she was sick, I’d have to wake up a few times when she stopped breathing. I couldn’t hear it no more,” He said. “And she’s laying, and I’m like, ‘You are not dying like that. I will not let you die.’ So I’m so used to that that I don’t sleep solid anymore.”
In addition, Duane Chapman revealed that in the two weeks that he spent mourning his wife’s death, his body was taking the brunt of the toll—he bearly ate much because of his lack of appetite, and every time he did eat, he was reminiscent of how he used to force-feed his wife when she was sick. He explained to ET Online that he had lost 17 pounds within two weeks.
RT CountryLiving: Dog the Bounty Hunter Has Lost 17 Pounds Since Wife Beth Chapman’s Death https://t.co/O4JGsK3Zp8
— Home and Yard Winnipeg (@home_yard) July 15, 2019
“I can’t eat. Two bites, I’m full. I got to force-feed myself like I force-fed her,” he said.
This stemmed from his poor eyesight, he explained, and back when his wife was still alive, she would read him the menu because he couldn’t. “I would go, ‘What do I want today, honey?’ And she would name two things. I never ordered … I’m having a hard time ordering food,” he told ET Online.
Despite having a hard time coming to terms with her death and coping with life without her, Chapman shared that he was able to view life with an entirely new look.
“People would say I lived a long and great life, sometimes a hard life,” he said. According to Wonderwall, Duane Chapman had, through this entire experience, finally came to peace with his own mortality. The reality star shared that while he didn’t have any suicidal thoughts, he was ready to join his wife when his time was due—and said that his wife merely crossed over earlier than he did.
However, for the time being, he said that he was going to use his pain and what he learned from the loss of his wife to help others out, and to connect with other people going through the same thing.
“I went through experiences to help others—I really mean this,” he told ET Online. “The other day, I met [a guy]. He goes, ‘Dog, you know I love you. I’m sorry, I lose my wife six months ago.’ And I hugged him, and I felt a connection life, boom, instant brotherhood, right? So when you go through something and somebody else [goes through the same thing], there’s something there. That’s why I’m going through it, but I use that thing that’s bad to help me help others.”
Beth Chapman’s Diagnosis
Beth Chapman was diagnosed back in September 2017, but her diagnosis did not bring her down. In a letter she wrote to her family and close friends, she detailed what it was like being told that she had cancer. She took it in stride and said that she wasn’t going to let cancer get to her.
In the letter she shared with US Weekly, she wrote, “as most of you know I’ve spent a lifetime facing tests and challenges I didn’t see coming and certainly never expected. I’ve been dealt my share of unexpected blows over the course of my almost fifty years but nothing as serious as the one I heard from my doctors two weeks ago when they uttered those dreaded three words, ‘You have cancer.'”
Beth Chapman shared further that she had developed a nagging cough, so she went to doctors to get a checkup, and it revealed that she had stage 2 throat cancer, according to ET Online.
“I have what is referred to as a T2 Tumor in my throat that is blocking my breathing. My doctors are suggesting immediate treatment and surgery before the disease progresses,” she wrote.
“To be certain I’ve stared down the devil more than once in my life but I’ve never faced a real, life or death decision. My life has never been easy, and I surely don’t expect it to start now,” she continued. “Still, I’ve never been a victim, and I won’t let cancer beat me. I realized the road I am about to travel will be rocky, full of unexpected twists and turns. But I know one thing for sure. A bend in the road is not the end of the road.”
She again reiterated her position on fighting her cancer and said that she had to be strong and not let cancer get the best of her.
“I knew I couldn’t let it take me over. I had to keep moving every day, moving forward. That’s all you can do when you get a diagnosis like this. So I’ll take it each day at a time. And I’ll fight it with all that I have,” she said, in an interview with PEOPLE. The initial diagnosis scared her, she admitted, and she said that there wasn’t much optimism—having been given this diagnosis. Despite surrounding herself with friends and family, she said that she didn’t want people to pity her.
“I don’t need to be pitied. I didn’t surround myself with people who pitied the situation. I wanted to be around people who helped me move forward. My friend Shannon Tweed pushed me every minute of every day, but she didn’t pity me,” Beth Chapman said to PEOPLE.
She talked further about her diagnosis and how everyone helped her out of the dark place that was her cancer diagnosis. “People get scared when they get the diagnosis. I’m no different; of course, I was scared. And then people go to Doctor Google, and it becomes an even more desperate situation. I didn’t want that. I had people around me who didn’t let me fall into darkness. They pulled me forward,” Beth Chapman said, according to PEOPLE.
“Cancer is a terrible, deadly disease that can take away your faith and your hope. You’ve got to fight it like hell. You can’t let it overtake your body—but you also can’t let it overtake your brain and your spirit,” she said.
On the day she passed away, she was in the bosom of her family, and her husband, who informed everyone of his wife’s passing. He posted on his social media, saying, “It’s 5:32 in Hawaii, this is the time she would wake up to go hike Koko Head mountain. Only today, she hiked the stairway to heaven. We all love you, Beth. See you on the other side.”
It’s 5:32 in Hawaii, this is the time she would wake up to go hike Koko Head mountain. Only today, she hiked the stairway to heaven. We all love you, Beth. See you on the other side.
— Duane Dog Chapman (@DogBountyHunter) June 26, 2019
