John Stamoshelped his longtime friend andFull HousecostarBob Sagetrealize the impact he’d had on others as Saget entered what would be the final years of his life.
Just eight months beforehis sudden death at the age of 65, Saget recorded a candid interview for theTil This Day with Radio Rahimpodcast. On Tuesday, PEOPLE exclusively shared the first part of the conversation in which Sagetdiscussed how mortality “has fortunately changed me.”
PEOPLE can also exclusively share the May 2021 chat’ssecond installment, whichLuminaryreleased on Wednesday. In it, Saget shared how Stamos throwing him a 60th birthday party sparked an epiphany about how he had changed others' lives for the better.
“I’ve had many different cathartic moments,” Saget explained to host Radio Rahim. “One of the hardest things I ever went through, even with all the deaths, was being divorced. So that was around 42. And The Motorcyclist’s Guide to the Galaxy says the secret to life is 42. Something happens at 42.”
“I do think that was around the time,” he continued. “We all have many poignant moments and they do seem to have an age tag on them. Fifty is a big one. Sixty hit me very hard, but a friend of mine threw a big party for me that I didn’t expect it to be — it was Stamos.”
“I found out how much love that I had given to receive so much love from people,” Saget added. “This isn’t without other hardships that were happening at the same time, just personal things. But I really started to go,You mean something.”
John Stamos and Bob Saget in 2013.Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images
This realization was so strong that Saget compared it to the 1946 film,It’s a Wonderful Life, starringJames StewartandDonna Reed.
“It’s likeIt’s a Wonderful Lifewhen [Stewart’s character] George Bailey … wants to kill himself. The movie starts, he’s on a bridge. He’s going to kill himself. And then an angel takes him through his life and shows him what would’ve happened had he not existed,” he explained. “And I know for a fact that I have helped people.”
He continued, “I know that I have given a lot of love to people because I have a lot. I have an extreme amount. I was raised with it. It’s what helped me to survive and stay sane. It’s helped me not let myself die.”
Getting even more candid, Saget revealed that there were moments of his life where “I’d be on a plane and didn’t care if it went down.”
“I looked around and went, they don’t look happy either, so it’ll be fine,” he admitted. “That’s all being a comic, thinking, ‘Joke.’ But then doing this stuff for people, withall the philanthropic stuff I can do, and people thank me for helping themfurther the research for sclerodermato try to save people’s lives.”
He added, “We can’t say save people, but we can sure help to try to facilitate it. And mental health is a big thing I’m getting more involved in now to try to put my name on it and help people because I’ve had it in my life for so long.”
Bob Saget.Mike Coppola/Getty
Saget died unexpectedly on Jan. 9, and an autopsy later revealed he haddied from head traumaconsistent with some kind of fall.
Prior to his death, Saget spent his life dedicated to charitable work, particularly after his sister Andrea died of a brain aneurysm in 1985, and his other sister,Gay, died from the autoimmune disease scleroderma in 1994.
Coincidentally, Saget had actually started work with the Scleroderma Research Foundation a few years prior to Gay’s diagnosis,he toldNIH Medline Plus Magazinein 2019.
“I got a call from someone I did not know asking me to host a comedy fundraiser for a disease I knew very little about,” the actor recalled of speaking tofounder Sharon Monsky. “I said yes and hosted the event, which starredEllen DeGeneres,Rosie O’Donnelland others. Little did I know that just a few years later, my sister would be diagnosed with the disease.”
In a May 2021Instagrampost, Saget called it “one of my life’s missions to help find a cure for this disease.” At the time of his death, the Scleroderma Research Foundationremembered himas a “relentless champion” for patients.
To donate to the Scleroderma Research Foundation in Saget’s memory,click here.
source: people.com
