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Mike Wolfe Sheds Insight Into Feud With ‘American Pickers’ Costar Frank Fritz Before His 2024 Death
Late American Pickers star Frank Fritz blamed his bitter, years-long feud with cohost Mike Wolfe on a battle over the spotlight, but the National Enquirer can reveal the truth is Wolfe was protecting his pal from public scrutiny.
Fritz — who passed away in September 2024 at age 60 — was hiding a severe opioid addiction that not even his friend of 40 years could help him beat, according to Wolfe.
The History Channel alum allegedly developed the bad habit while healing from back surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Frank was doing a lot of things that he was not supposed to do,” claims Wolfe, 61, told Daily Mail.
After 21 seasons on their hit show, Fritz vanished from episodes without an explanation, last appearing on screens in March 2020.
What followed were a series of erratic interviews, where he spoke to The Sun about wanting to return to American Pickers, but hinted that Mike’s ego was standing in the way.
“The show is tilted towards him 1,000 percent,” the jilted collector complained at the time, insisting he was sober after secretly undergoing 77 days of treatment for alcohol abuse. “I’m second and he’s number one on the show.”
Though Fritz suggested Wolfe was plotting to replace him on the series with his brother, Robbie Wolfe, the sidelined star maintained he was the one who was more popular with fans.
He said their beef wasn’t just TV-related, though. “I haven’t talked to Mike in two years,” sniped Frank. “He knew my back was messed up, but he didn’t call me up and ask how I was doing.”
In July 2021, it was confirmed that Fritz had been fired by History Channel.
Despite the very public thrashing he’d received, Wolfe covered up the true cause of his costar’s axing — a raging pill problem — out of loyalty to his troubled pal.
A year later, Fritz’s tragic stroke kept a comeback from ever happening, according to Wolfe.
Friends placed him under an emergency conservatorship, and he was sent to an Iowa nursing facility.
Wolfe was among those regularly visiting his old pal.
“He could barely speak,” Mike sadly recalls.
