The Real Reason DANIELLE COLBY Quit American Pickers

American Pickers has been a mainstay of the History Channel for 22 seasons now, while antique collectors Mike Wolf and, until recently, Frank Fritz, troll the country looking for forgotten treasures. One woman keeps the operation running at Antique Archaeology—that woman is Danielle Colby, and she’s made a reputation for being shrewd, graceful, and badass.

Fans of Danielle and the show haven’t had much good news in the last few years. The show has been on hiatus for 2 years, and it was recently revealed that co-star Frank Fritz left the show and is dealing with serious health issues. Fans of Danielle have been nervous too—could she be next? Let’s go find out and take a deep dive into Danielle’s past.

While the antique business isn’t always the most exciting, Danielle’s personal life has always been far from dull. From a firestorm of a messy marriage to a new risque passion, you may not believe the drama and secrets Danielle carries. What happens when the cameras stop rolling, and what has Danielle been up to since American Pickers went off the air temporarily? Let’s go find out.

But before we do, like this video and subscribe to the channel. Ready to get picking? Well, let’s go find out what happened.

A Messy Marriage
Danielle Colby was born into a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Davenport, Iowa. Because of this, she didn’t exactly have the most normal childhood. Out in the Iowa cornfields, it seemed there was little chance she would ever escape her insular rural community, let alone one day work on TV. Danielle accepted the simple, quiet life that lay ahead, and decades went by.

By 29, she was married to a man with whom she had two children, an Englishman named Robert Strong. While Danielle seemed to have let go of her dreams, she settled into a peaceful, if quiet, home life. Meanwhile, she was working as a manager at an antique shop. There wasn’t much exciting going on with her, but then things started changing—and very fast.

Danielle’s career took off as she began filming for American Pickers, which quickly shot up the rankings. Danielle now wasn’t just spending her days behind the counter of a dusty store; almost overnight, she became a micro-celebrity. How did she feel about this? Well, Danielle was thrilled—she had worked hard for years to get to this point. Unfortunately, her husband didn’t appreciate her new fame quite as much. Robert began resenting the attention Danielle got. He found the fame and notoriety difficult to deal with, especially when it wasn’t his. Their marriage couldn’t survive the strain of this disagreement, and the two divorced soon after.

So what about today? Has Danielle found another fella? You’ll have to keep watching to find out.

On-Stage Controversy
While some TV shows practically invite intense disagreements between fans, American Pickers usually isn’t one of them. There isn’t much to argue about when it comes to antiques—or so you’d expect. But during Season 19, a controversy erupted that sharply polarized fans. The surprising topic? Aerosmith.

It all began with a pickup that seemed routine enough. The show got its hands on the very first Aerosmith van that the band toured with. Danielle and her co-workers spent several episodes fixing it up. The catch? They would eventually gift it back to the band—in person. While this sounds like a heartfelt enough gesture, fans began to raise a fuss about the arc. First of all, the band was beginning a residency in Las Vegas, and most of the screen time seemed dedicated to promoting this venture. Sure, you have to accept some product placement on TV, but many fans thought this went too far and was actually insulting to viewers.

Few could have imagined the shocking places these episodes would lead. When they gave Aerosmith back the van, the band ended up with a sizable amount of screen time, but viewers also had beef with how these scenes played out.

Many of the issues centered on Danielle Colby. Fans accused her of not taking the already silly episode seriously enough. In fact, Danielle was shown during the season finale making a dubious effort at tearing up over how emotional the whole scenario was. But not so fast—life isn’t always as simple as it appears on TV. Some viewers, after closely watching the scenes with Danielle and the band, claimed that Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith, behaved inappropriately during his interactions with Danielle. They even alleged that the singer was high.

Looking for a resolution to this muddy controversy? You’re out of luck. The season ended, and the show picked right back up afterward like nothing weird had ever happened.

Danielle’s Risque Passion
American Pickers is known for being a mostly family-friendly show that fans of all ages can enjoy. So, you’d expect the show’s stars to maintain relatively respectable personal lives, right? Well, not Danielle Colby. Although she keeps it PG on the show, her personal life isn’t quite as simple.

While Danielle was finally enjoying her TV success, free from the marriage that was holding her back, it seemed like she should be having the time of her life. But she didn’t feel completely satisfied. Being a minor celebrity and working on epic projects wasn’t enough. She didn’t know where to turn. Then, in a blink of an eye, something happened that would flip her life upside down.

Danielle saw a burlesque performance in Chicago starring Margaret Cho and dancer Satan’s Angel. If you’re not familiar, burlesque is a racy style of dancing and entertainment that was popularized in the late 1800s as a variety show featuring dirty jokes and occasional nudity. By the early 1900s, the focus had shifted more toward the risque elements. Burlesque declined over the years, but since the 1990s, there’s been a resurgence.

Danielle was so taken with the burlesque performance that she immediately dove into the community, eventually beginning to dance herself. She created her own professional troupe, performing under the stage name Danny Diesel, and wowed audiences with her sensual performances. Flash forward to today, and Danielle is still dancing.

Her career seems more focused on burlesque than TV at this point, and she even teaches burlesque at her academy in Chicago. Her daughter has also dabbled in professional burlesque, keeping it in the family.

American Pickers Today
Before we get to Danielle, we must say that Frank Fritz has not been part of American Pickers since he was fired. Following the two-year hiatus, he had back surgery and, as of 2022, is at home recovering from a stroke. Creator Mike Wolf has said that Fritz is welcome to rejoin the show, so that is promising.

As for Danielle, fans were delighted to see her in the 23rd season of American Pickers, which concluded in March 2022. She recently posted a selfie with her co-star Mike Wolf, thanking him for the opportunities and saying she’s excited to continue working with him.

Today, Danielle splits her time between picking and her burlesque dancing and teaching. She seems pretty satisfied, posting burlesque photos on Instagram, hanging out with fluffy dogs, and running her burlesque studio. She also runs a clothing brand called 4 Miles 2 Memphis.

What about her home life? Danielle is married again, this time to a French artist named Alexandre De Meyer. He even designed the logo for her clothing brand. Let’s hope he can handle the fame, because with the possibility of Season 24 of Pickers, that fame isn’t going away anytime soon.