Duane "Dog" Chapman says he will eventually date again after losing his wife to cancer, but there will only ever be one Mrs. Chapman.
The 66-year-old star of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" spoke to People about being open to another relationship following the death of his wife, Beth Chapman, at 51 on June 26.
"I probably will do that, and I told her that,'' Chapman said. "What deal we said is I will never take ‘Beth’ off my chest, I have her name here. And I will never get married."
"And she said to me, ‘We are human, okay?' And probably the same thing I’d say to her — ‘I know you’re gonna have a boyfriend, I hope you have 10, but don’t go fricking marry one, and say those words. Don’t you dare do that.’ I would say that, and she did say that to me."
Beth was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2017 and underwent a successful surgery, but she learned last year that the cancer had returned.
Chapman spoke to Entertainment Tonight last month about their final time together.
"The last few moments she said, 'Come in here right now, in the bathroom,'" he said. "I went in and she said, 'Look at me.' And I said, 'Yeah, you're freaking beautiful baby.' (And she said,) 'Look at me, Duane Chapman.' And I did, I always saw Beth and she said, 'Please, let me go.'"
"And I didn't even make a decision, I almost said, 'I can't.' Before I could say, 'Alright,' she couldn't breathe and I called the ambulance."
The couple endured tragedy from the outset of their marriage. They tied the knot in a ceremony in Hawaii in 2006, just one day after Duane's daughter, Barbara Katy Chapman, 23, was killed in a car accident near her home of Fairbanks, Alaska.
He gathered with his 10 surviving children, two of whom he had with Beth, and decided to go forward with the wedding.
Chapman returned to Hawaii in June for a funeral ceremony for Beth in Waikiki with family and friends.
His children are not prepared for him to be in another relationship just yet.
"And I’m trying to tell them, 'I don’t know, I can’t rent (a girlfriend) you guys, I don’t know what to say,'” he told People. “But right now, they are like, ‘Dad!'”
He added that the outpouring of support from fans of the show, where Beth served as his sidekick, have helped him heal.
"Your fans keep you going, keep you alive, keep you happy, are your friends that you meet, so that helped her a lot too, with the battle,'' he told People. "And now it’s helping me with this battle."