Dog The Bounty Hunter’s fiancee reveals she’d never heard of star and thought he ‘needed a haircut’ when she saw him
DOG The Bounty Hunter's fiance has revealed she'd never heard of the reality star until a few months ago - and thought he "needed a haircut" when she first met him.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, , 51, also said a friend had predicted she and - would get together last summer after "God gave her a message" while she was praying.
Shocked Francie, who had just lost her husband to cancer and had no idea who Dog, 67, was at the time, laughed it off - telling her friend, "Don't be ridiculous."
But her friend's prophecy came true - and the couple exclusively to The Sun on Monday.
Telling her fascinating love story for the first time, Francie said: "In June of last year, I was six months into my grieving and my really close girlfriend and I went to Arizona together with her mom. We're involved with a ministry there.
"We were in the hotel room and my girlfriend was listening to some worship music on YouTube and she said to me, 'Oh my gosh, two days ago. I had no idea. She had throat cancer.'
"And I said, 'Oh my gosh, that's so sucky. I hate cancer'. We had that conversation for a minute and then I said to her, 'Who's Beth Chapman?'
"And she goes, 'Dog The Bounty Hunter's wife, you don't know who that is?' And I was like, 'No, I don't know who Dog The Bounty Hunter is.'
"She said 'Are you joking? Everybody knows who Dog The Bounty Hunter is.'
"So she pulls up pictures of Duane and Beth and she holds the phone up to me and she said, 'This is Dog the Bounty Hunter, you know who he is.'
"And I looked at his picture and I say, 'I have no idea who that is - and that guy needs a haircut.'
"The next morning I'm in the bathroom getting ready and she comes running in the bathroom and she goes, 'Okay, you're going to think this is nuts, but I have to tell you anyway, God just said to me that you're going to meet Dog The Bounty Hunter and he's going to use you guys in a huge way to change lives.'
"And I just started laughing and I said to her, 'Your God antennas are all twisted. That's just ridiculous, just stop it.'"
Francie thought nothing about her friend's prediction until August when she answered a voicemail left for her late husband Bob's excavating business back in Colorado.
"I wasn't calling back anybody who was leaving messages on his phone anymore because it just got really difficult," Francie explained.
"My 8-year-old grandson has kind of taken over his Papa's phone. And so it was on the couch and there was three messages on it.
"And the first two messages I didn't listen to, I just erased. And then the third message all of a sudden just started playing out loud on the speaker and the guy says, 'This is Doug Chapman. I'm calling for Bob,' and I almost erased the message.
"But then he said, 'I'm really good friends with Carlos, he's my next door neighbor.' Carlos was a really good client of my husband's.
"And I was like, 'Oh my gosh, Carlos doesn't know that Bob passed away.' I should call this guy back.
"So I called back and he answers the phone and I said to him, 'I'm really sorry to tell you that my husband passed away a few months ago.'
"So he starts balling and then I start crying. So then all of a sudden I hear him take this big, deep breath and he says, 'My name's not Doug, it's Dog The Bounty Hunter.'
"I take the phone away from my ear and I'm looking at it and I'm going, 'What's going on right now?' And I go right back to what my girlfriend said at the hotel. And I'm thinking, 'This is insane.'
"And he said, I lost my wife to cancer a few months ago also. And so we ended up having this like hour and a half conversation about what we've been through."
The pair stayed in touch, eventually met for coffee and their friendship
The couple moved in together and have been quarantining with each other at Dog's house.
They are planning to have a big family wedding after Dog asked Francie to in a romantic candlelit proposal.
Francie says she's still shocked that she is getting married again - and thought she'd remain single after losing Bob.
"Did I ever thought that I would be with anyone ever again? Absolutely not," she said.
"I told everyone, my family, friends, everybody that I go to church with, I will never, ever be with anybody ever again.
"And my son even says that he was waiting for me to tell everybody that I was going on a mission to some other country because I just couldn't deal with life without Bob.
"So I had no plan at all in my life to ever be with anybody again but somehow God brought us together.
"The first couple of times that we met and then all of those hours and hours of phone conversations we've had about Bob and Beth, and it's not just about us walking them 'home'.
"It's about the years before that, all the treatment and the chemo, taking care of them, walking alongside of them.
"The fact that we have been able to become friends through that and then what God started to do and our hearts - I don't doubt that it was divine appointment.
"There's no other way that we would have been brought to each other - we are from completely different worlds and now God's brought us together and in the middle of this quarantine, the fact that we sit together every day talking for hours and hours.
"We feel like we've known each other for years and years."
Francie says that right now she has alongside Dog.
She does, however, see herself helping others by sharing her story of love after.
She said: "I don't think I'd do the TV thing, because that's just not who I am or what my interest is.
"But us doing things together, to help people, yes. So telling our story in churches or speaking at different places and helping people get their lives back together - I absolutely want to be a part of that and think that we will do things like that together. But not on TV."
And she is not phased by dating a celebrity - or by the reaction of fans who might think Dog is after losing wife Beth.
"I fell in love with Duane Lee Chapman, Dog the Bounty Hunter is what he does for a living. And I'm supportive of that 100%. I'm supportive of anything he does 100%," she said.
"Before the quarantine, we were just getting to know each other and so I only went to a few places with him and now we only go to Walgreens and Starbucks.
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"But you know, people love him and he's changing lives. So who wouldn't be excited to be a part of that and walking alongside him, watching him do that?
"So the celebrity thing it doesn't bother me at all. I don't find my worth there. I know who I am and all I want to do is support him and walk alongside him."
And she revealed she has grown to love Dog's trademark blond locks now, saying, "It's part of who he is and I love it."