Duane Chapman gets engaged to girlfriend Francie Frane exactly 11 months after wife Beth's death
Duane 'Dog the bounty hunter' Chapman is engaged to his Colorado rancher girlfriend Francie Frane, eleven months after he lost his beloved wife Beth due to cancer. The 67-year-old has proposed to his new love over a candlelight dinner and the duo is now planning their wedding.
Speaking to the media, Frane said: “I think I had gone to pick up some food and then when I came back he had all the lights turned down with just a few lights on and a bunch of candles lit... So I put all the food in the kitchen and I came in and he said, 'I know that God brought you into my life and I don't want to spend one moment of it without you'. And he got down on one knee and he opened the ring box and he said, 'Will you marry me and spend the rest of our lives together?'”
“Who can say no to that? It was wonderful,” the 51-year-old added.
The pair are planning to tie the knot after the coronavirus lockdown. Speaking of their marriage, Chapman said he wants to have the "biggest wedding there's ever been" open to all his fans. “I've had so many fans ask 'When you marry Francie, are you going to let your fans come? So we're negotiating right now because I want to open it up. I would love to have the biggest wedding there's ever been. I'm sorry but that's just me. I hope I can talk Francie into it and open it to my fans, the 'Dog Pound,' to everybody,” he said.
Continuing, he added: “It would be one hell of a party and it's just what people need right now. I told Francie, people need a little love after being locked down. I love the idea of that."
Dog's 12 children, Frane's two sons, and their grandchildren are expected to attend their big day.
This comes after Dog took to Instagram in late April to show his love for Frane. He shared her picture and wrote: “I scream & cry Beth where are you why did you leave me then I look up & see you Francie & the pain turns to a smile I LOVE YOU, WOMAN!!" His lady love also responded to his PDA and shared "I love you too, babe!" in her Instagram Story.
According to reports, Dog’s outspoken family also loves their pairing unlike his last relationship with Moon Angell. Chapman's daughter Lyssa and a close family friend Rainy Robinson earlier shared that they could not be happier for the new couple.
“They are both so happy together and they are good for each other. Francie has been very respectful to all the kids — and to Beth's memory — and my dad is the same way with Bob and their children. They go to church three times a week and dad is trying to give up smoking — she is a good woman for my dad," Lyssa had said.
"He's the happiest I've seen him in a long time — he's so in love and wants to spend the rest of his life with Francie. They have both lost their spouses to cancer so they know what it's like to go through that and they are helping each other through it,” she added.
Chapman and Frane have been reportedly dating for a few months now and they also moved together earlier this year. The two met through the latter’s husband, Bob, who used to do yardwork for Chapman. Bob died from cancer just a few months before Beth passed away in June 2019. Since then, the pair became close and has been helping each other with the immense grief of losing their loved ones.
“I know that when I start to feel bad about Beth and it's overwhelming, Francie seems to show up and that helps the kids. And I feel that Beth expects her to show up to take care of me,” Chapman had said this earlier for Frane. He added: “And Bob, Francie's late husband, expects me to be a man and a gentleman and so I am. It's a very real love that we are developing with each other.
“Both of us are allowed to talk about our spouses that are in Heaven — it's not like we're afraid to mention it or anything like that. We console each other but we also know that we have a responsibility and that is to do this right.”