Bob Barker’s Girlfriend Nancy Burnet Looks Back on Her 'Charmed Life' with the Late Host on His 100th Birthday
“We had a very similar humor about things. Kind of rather dry humor,” the animal activist said of the late TV host
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Bob Barker and Nancy Burnet on Capitol Hill, June 13, 2000 in Washington.Bob Barker’s longtime companion of 40 years, Nancy Burnet, is reflecting on her decades-long relationship with the late TV host on what would have been his 100th birthday.
Burnet shared with Entertainment Tonight that her late partner — who died on Aug. 26 at age 99 — would have reveled and joked about making it to 100.
"He'd just say, '100, I can't believe it,'" she said on Tuesday, adding that he'd joke, "'And I'm just as cute as I ever was.'"
Burnet also shared that what she misses most about the former Price Is Right host is his sense of humor. “We had a very similar humor about things. Kind of rather dry humor,” said Burnet. “I guess just chatting [too]. He had a really wonderful, charmed life."
The couple first met in March 1983 at an animal adoption event that Barker was emceeing. Burnet, an activist involved with animal legislation, had heard about Barker’s event and hoped he would help raise awareness around a proposal she had to stop pet stores from selling chicks and ducklings around Easter time.
Burnet previously told PEOPLE that although Barker was already a big TV star, she didn’t watch daytime television. “I knew almost nothing about him really,” she explained. “I knew he did The Price Is Right. I knew that he was interested in animals, and he had the format to get the word out.”
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Bob Barker and Nancy Burnet on October 13, 2012 in Hollywood, California.Related: Who Is Bob Barker's Girlfriend? All About Nancy Burnet
In her interview with ET, Burnet recalled, "That first day, he walked over to me ... and said, 'Hi, I'm Bob Barker. Are you here to adopt a dog?' And I said no and I ended up adopting a dog anyway. It was the last one. He didn't want to go back into his cage, so, of course I took him with me. And then he invited me to dinner that day."
But Burnet declined his offer and told him that she couldn’t because she drove her friends to the event, so “it would have to be some other time." Burnet recalled that Barker was persistent and told her, "Let your friends drive your car home and I'll drive you home."
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While Barker’s attempt at a first date wasn’t entirely smooth, eventually, the two began dating and embarked on a relationship that spanned four decades. At the time of their first interaction, both Barnet and Barker did not want to get married. (Barker’s wife, Dorothy Jo Gideon died two years earlier from lung cancer in 1981.)
Barnet shared that they discussed the prospect of ever wanting to remarry at the start of their relationship. “He said no, and I said, perfect, because neither do I. We can move forward. Well, that lasted for a while and then eventually he did -- many times -- propose over the years," she told ET.
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Bob Barker and Nancy Burnet in New York City on May 17, 2002.Throughout the multiple proposals, Barker worked with an attorney in 2011 to draft a prenup just in case Barnet conceded.
"He had his attorney draft a prenup without talking to me about it in advance, but he had it drafted up by a well-known attorney in L.A., prepared it and sent that to me," she explained to the outlet. "He just didn't really take no for an answer."
"I have a keepsake," joked Barnet.
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