Bobby Sherman’s body is “shutting down” as he approaches the end of his battle with Stage 4 kidney cancer, according to his wife, Brigitte Poublon.
“He was doing crossword puzzles with me in the last few days. And then all of a sudden Saturday, he turned around and … he’s just sleeping more and his body’s not working anymore. It’s not,” Poublon told Fox News Digital in a phone interview published Wednesday. “Everything’s shutting down.”
Poublon confirmed to Fox that Sherman has kidney cancer that has “spread everywhere.” She had announced March 25 on Facebook that the 81-year-old, a teen idol in the 1960s, was very ill.
“As many of you know, Bobby has been retired for some time and is no longer able to participate in cameos, sign autographs, or make appearances,” she wrote in that post, addressing her husband’s “cherished fans.”
“It is with a heavy heart that we share Bobby has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. During this challenging time, we kindly ask for your understanding and respect for our privacy. Thank you so much for still remembering him. We really appreciate it.”
Sherman had returned home and was getting “special care,” Poublon told Fox. “His last words from the hospital last night were, ‘Brig, I just want to go home.’ ”
Sherman was known for his “bubble gum music” of the late ‘60s, having shot to fame after playing fan favorite Jeremy Bolt on “Here Come the Brides,” a TV series that aired from 1968 to 1970.
He started recording in 1962, then earned his first gold record in 1969 with the single “Little Woman.” He scored more hits with “Easy Come, Easy Go,” “Julie, Do Ya Love Me” and “La La La (If I Had You).”
After a one-episode gig playing a singer on “The Monkees” in 1968, he appeared in “The Partridge Family” in 1971 as songwriter Bobby Conway. He then spun off out of that episode as the same character in the comedy “Getting Together,” which ran for a single season.
Sherman stepped away from the entertainment industry to do public service work; he was a volunteer paramedic, a technical reserve police officer with the LAPD and a reserve deputy sheriff with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. But he still appeared periodically on TV through the 1970s and into the mid-1980s on shows including “The Love Boat,” “Fantasy Island,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “Emergency!,” then showed up on an episode of “Frasier” in 1997.
“I think it’s important that Bobby realizes the impact he left on the world, the music he left behind, the TV series he left behind, but mostly, too, his love for caring about people, being a paramedic, a cop,” Poublon told Fox. “I want to have him realize how many people he really influenced, how he touched lives.”
On Tuesday, she said on Facebook, “Thank you for all the love and support you’ve given us this week. Bobby is terminally ill and resting comfortably. Only well wishes are accepted please.”
Poublon, who married Sherman in 2010, is his second wife.