Hours after learning about the passing of his former TV mentor, the longtime fixture on 'The Jerry Springer Show' recalls what happened during their last meeting for cigars.
- April 28, 2023
AceShowbiz - Steve Wilkos believed Jerry Springer bid farewell to him in a subtle way when they last met. Mourning the loss of his former TV mentor, the longtime fixture on "The Jerry Springer Show" admitted that he only realized the former was saying goodbye just right after his passing.
A few hours after finding out about Jerry's death on Thursday, April 27, Steve remembered the TV icon who helped him start his own show "The Steve Wilkos Show" in an interview with ET. During the chat, he shared their final meet-up that took place around a month before the former's passing.
Steve explained that Jerry invited him to meet for cigars. At the time, the 59-year-old TV personality had just finished taping his show and was exhausted. Still, he decided to meet the man who had significant impact on his life.
"I really didn't want to go, but it's Jerry and I'm like, 'I want to see the guy and I love him.' He never told me he was ill. And now, I think that night I saw him was his way of saying goodbye to me without saying goodbye," he began to share. "I wish I would have known. I think in his way he was telling me goodbye."
Steve then recounted that during the gathering, instead of talking about family as they usually did each time they met, Jerry chose to walk down the memory lane and reminisced on their old days on "The Jerry Springer Show".
"He embraced me. He hugged me like he had never done before and he was telling me he loves me. We sat down, and I think back now, we were reflecting a lot on the good times that we had, which we normally didn't do a lot, but this time it was a lot of reflection on the good times that we had together," Steve looked back.
"And I was telling my wife, for me, it makes a lot of sense today. I'm hearing that he had pancreatic cancer, but he did not say anything to me. So, I'm really not sure. But if it's true, then he definitely said goodbye to me in a way that he was letting me know that that was the end," he continued pointing out the significance of their chat.
Jerry passed away at the age of 79 on Thursday, April 27. His family, per reported by TMZ, shared that he died in a peaceful way at his home in the Chicago area. His personal publicist has confirmed to ET that he died after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
