(NewsNation) — Many know John Schneider as Bo Duke from “Dukes of Hazzard,” but the actor behind the character is now opening up about the grieving experience of losing his wife.
Schneider’s wife, Alicia Allain Schneider, died in February at age 53, after battling breast cancer. Since then, he has been keeping her memory alive by leaving touching tributes to Alicia on his Facebook page.
“Sometimes you meet someone where you feel you have known them already all of your life. And when that happens, there’s a special bond that I believe, as a Christian, that bond is God’s love here on Earth,” Schneider told “NewsNation Prime” host Natasha Zouves on Sunday.
Finding comfort in his faith, Schneider said he knows he will be with Alicia again someday.
“I completely and totally believe that we will be reunited when I’m done here. And God will let me know when I’m done here. The first person that’s going to reach out for my hand when I take my last breath, will be that woman,” Schneider said.
He added: “I believe I didn’t lose her. I know where she is and I know where I’m going.”
Schneider says he knew Alicia was the person for him as soon as they met.
“We fell in love, I think instantly. I don’t know if you know what twin flames are. Soulmates we hear all the time, but twin flames are … When I met that young lady, my thought wasn’t ‘Oh my God, she’s beautiful. I hope that she’ll go to dinner with me.’ My thought was ‘I know you. We have had conversations before,” Schneider told Zouves.
From the first look at Alicia to their last words, Schneider says he always felt love for her. In her final moments, Schneider said he had to tell her a lie.
“When I told her that if she needed to go be with her grandparents, you know, if she needed to go, that was perfectly OK, that I understand. All of that was the truth. But here was the lie. I said if you have to go, I’ll be OK,” Schneider said through tears. “I’m not going to be OK until that day. There is a hole in me because of how I told you I feel we’re twin flames. I feel we’re soulmates.”
For now, he’s finding reminders of Alicia in the little things.
“It’s the little things that people wind up missing most of all and that’s what I miss. I’m here in our house and I miss the smell of her cooking, I miss her being at her desk (…) It’s everything,” he said.
Schneider plans to continue sharing his grieving process with others. He is expected to release an album about his journey called “We’re Still Us.”