Even though Bob Barker was 99 years old, he was living a full life, according to his girlfriend, Nancy Burnet.
Prior to his sad death on August 26, Burnet shared details about their life in a 2022 interview with Closer. “He was strong. He was doing remarkably well for almost 99 years old," she shared. “He was always an avid reader and had a library filled with walls and walls of books. He also learned to play dominoes.”
Before getting famous on The Price Is Right and other game shows, Barker, who grew up on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, would always play with the community's dogs.
“His mother would say that if she wanted to find him, she’d go out on the balcony, and you could see far and wide,” Burnet said. “She would just look around, and if she could see a lot of dogs somewhere, that’s where she would find him.”
Additionally, Burnet said that Barker would always be remembered as the person who cared so deeply about animals. The TV show's charitable foundation contributed millions to help build the DonkeyLand wildlife sanctuary in Reche Canyon, Calif., to care for wild burros.
“That is a legacy to him,” she said. “It’s a sanctuary for donkeys to roam and live out their life.”
“Nothing gives me quite so much joy,” Barker previously said, “as when people tell me they’ve had their pets spayed or neutered.”
Barker, who was previously married to Dorothy Jo, who died in 1981, died of natural causes.
Burnet shared a heartfelt statement about the tragic loss.
"I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally," Burnet told Entertainment Tonight. "We were great friends over these 40 years. He will be missed."
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Barker's former publicist Roger Neal confirmed the news, saying, "It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World's Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us."
