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.

What’s good on me too? Well, it’s America.
But 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 American marriage to a new risqué passion,
you may not believe the drama and secrets that Danielle carries.

What happens when the camera stops 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, at least 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.
As it fast shot up the rankings, Danielle 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 this new fame quite as much as she did.
Robert began resenting the attention Danielle got. He found fame and notoriety difficult to deal with,
at least when it wasn’t his. Their marriage could not 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 disagreement between fans,
American Pickers usually isn’t one of them.
I mean, there isn’t that much to argue about when it comes to antiques,
at least that’s what you’d expect.

But during season 19, a controversy erupted that would sharply polarize fans.
The surprising topic was Aerosmith.

It all began with a pickup that seemed routine enough.
The show got its hands on the very first Aerosmith van that they 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.
First of all, the band was beginning a residency in Las Vegas,
and most of the screen time seemed dedicated to promoting this venture.

And sure, you have to accept some product placement on TV.
Many fans thought that this was going too far and that it was actually insulting to viewers.
But few could have imagined the shocking places the episodes would lead.

When they gave Aerosmith back the van,
sure, they ended up with a sizable amount of screen time.
But viewers also had beef with how these scenes went down.
Many of the issues were with a chosen cast member: Danielle Colby.

Fans accused Danielle 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,
at just how emotional the whole scenario was.

But not so fast. Life isn’t always as simple as it appears on TV.
Some viewers, after spending time looking over the scenes with Danielle and the band,
had a completely different issue.
They claimed that Steven Tyler, the lead singer of Aerosmith,
was completely inappropriate during his scenes with Danielle,
even claiming the singer was “high.”

If you’re looking for a resolution to this muddy controversy, of course, you’re out of luck.
The season ended, and the show picked right back up afterwards like nothing weird ever happened.

Danielle’s risqué passion: American Pickers is known for being a mostly family-friendly show,
that fans of junk of all ages can enjoy.
So you would expect the show’s stars to maintain boring, respectable personal lives.
But 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 her marriage that was holding her back,
it seemed like she should be having the time of her life. But she didn’t feel that way.

Completely satisfied being a minor celebrity and working on epic projects wasn’t enough,
and she didn’t know where to turn.
But 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,
popularized back in the late 1800s as a style of variety show featuring dirty jokes and occasional nudity.
By the early 1900s, there wasn’t much focus on the jokes—you see what I’m saying?
Right, cover your eyes kids.

Burlesque in general lost popularity over the next few decades,
but since the 1990s there has been a resurgence in the performance style.
Danielle was so taken with the burlesque performance,
she immediately dove into the community, even beginning dancing herself,
and we hear she’s a natural.

It wasn’t long until she created her own professional troupe,
performing under the stage name Danny De Danielle,
called audiences with her sensual performances.
It’s pretty cool that Danny Diesel was a nickname she originally got from her father.

Flash forward to today, Danielle still dances.
Take a look at her Instagram—her career seems more focused on burlesque than TV.
At this point, she even teaches the basics to other burlesque dancers
at her burlesque academy in Chicago,
and even her daughter dabbles as a professional burlesque dancer too.
Talk about keeping it in the family.

American Pickers today: Before we get to Danielle, we must say that Fritz has not been part of American Pickers.
After he was fired following the 2-year hiatus, he had back surgery,
and as of 2022, he’s now at home healing from a stroke.
But creator Mike Wolf said that Fritz was welcome to rejoin the show, so that is promising.

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

But will the show get picked up again? I’m not sure.
Ratings on the History Channel show have declined after Frank’s exit became apparent.
But who knows.

Today, Danielle splits her time between pickin’ and her burlesque dancing and teaching,
and she seems pretty satisfied, posting racy burlesque photos on Instagram,
as well as hanging out with really fluffy dogs.

In addition to running her burlesque studio, Danielle also dabbles in the clothing industry,
opening up a brand called Four Miles to Memphis.

But what about her home life?
Well, our sources have indicated that Danielle is married again, to a French artist, Alexandre Deer,
and he actually designed the logo for her clothing brand.

Let’s just hope he can handle the fame, because heck,
along with the possibility of a season 24 of Pickers, that fame ain’t going away.

Danielle’s life has never been simple.
From an unusual childhood to a disastrous first marriage to an unlikely TV career,
it seems life has thrown her one curveball after another.

But she has never backed down from a challenge, and for better or worse,
she’s never been scared to be herself.
Strut your stuff, Danielle.

So keep an eye out for more American Pickers.
What’s a great episode of American Pickers you remember?
What item did they restore? Please get in the comments and tell me your thoughts.

If you enjoyed our video, please smash that thumbs-up icon to show support,
subscribe to our channel, and come back often so we can keep telling you what happened.