“One Tree Hill” star Bevin Prince opened up about her husband’s death.
William Friend died after being struck by lightning five months ago. Prince recalled losing her husband while he was enjoying a boating day in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.
“We look up, and we can see the storm in a distance,” Prince told ABC News. “But we’d been there so many times, and there was no urgency for anyone to get off the water at that time. We were watching it.”
Prince and Friend were on the boat with family and friends. The TV star also recalled there being “60-some boats out there” at the time.
“One Tree Hill” actress Bevin Prince opened up about her husband’s death in a new interview. William Friend died five months ago after being struck by lightning.
(Instagram: Bevin Prince)
HUSBAND OF ‘ONE TREE HILL’ ACTRESS STRUCK BY LIGHTNING AND KILLED
Once the storm rolled in, things changed quickly. Prince and her father got into a different boat, so the actress wasn’t there when Friend was struck by the lightning.
“It was instant,” Prince recalled. “They rushed over to him and, at the time, a police boat happened to be coming by, so they moved him over to the police boat quickly. And from what I’ve heard, you know, spent a lot of time and care trying to resuscitate him.”
Police performed CPR on Friend on the police boat until they made it to the marina, and at that point EMS took over life-saving measures, local authorities told ABC News at the time.
Prince revealed what her husband had said a short while before his death.
“Right before it hit him, he lit a cigar, and he looked at my father, and he said, ‘If we get struck by lightning, Mike, this is where I wanna be.’ And then it happened,” she added. “I believe it was really his time.”
William Friend and Bevin Prince married in 2016.
(Instagram: Bevin Prince)
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“He was 33 years old. It was July 3, and I believe the exact time that the lightning struck was 3:13 p.m. So knowing that all the resources were there to potentially save him, I have to believe that something bigger beyond me was calling him,” Prince said.
Prince remembered her husband, with whom she had started a fitness business, as one of the “funniest people” she had ever met.
“I’m just so proud. I’m so proud that I got to do life with him,” she said. “He was one of the funniest people I’ve ever met in my life, by far. He lit up every single room he came into. You never forgot when you met Will Friend.”
Prince and Friend got married in 2016. The couple had moved to North Carolina during the coronavirus pandemic to be closer to friends and family.
The actress launched her career with her role in “One Tree Hill.” She appeared on the show from 2004 until 2012.
Before his death, Bevin Prince and William Friend launched a fitness business together called Recess.
(Instagram: Bevin Prince)
