Dave Coulier Looks Back on the 'Audio Hug' Voicemail He Received from Late Friend Bob Saget

Dave Coulier holds tightly onto a particularly emotional voicemail left by his late friend Bob Saget several years ago.

On the latest episode of his podcast, Full House Rewind, Coulier, 64, described Saget, who died suddenly at age 65 in 2022, as “the biggest hugger I ever knew” as he reflected on a meaningful message that his former costar left for him in 2021.

“He hugged everyone, and if you were going through a tough time, Bob was there for you,” Coulier said, before sharing a more personal anecdote to describe Saget’s character. “When my brother Danny took his own life in 2021, Bob was the first person who called me and left a voicemail.”

The message was like “an audio hug,” Coulier said before he played it to close out the podcast episode. He also encouraged listeners to “pass along the same kind of compassion” that Saget showed him.

“I know it's not a time to call, but I'm right here, 24/7, right now, right here,” Saget told the fellow Full House star in the voicemail. “I love you Dave, and I'm so sorry Dave. You loved him. I'm so sorry."

Saget continued, "So I'm here. I'm here 24/7, just call me anytime. Doesn't have to be now, it can be a week — whenever. I can just talk to you and listen. I love you so much."

At '90s Con in September, Coulier — along with a slew of his former costars including Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber — shared that Saget is still popping up in his life in unexpected ways.

“I’m still opening texts that he sent me. That’s how many he sent me," he quipped during a Full House panel, which was moderated by PEOPLE Senior Editor Breanne L. Heldman. 

Sweetin, 42, agreed as she laughed about how, even after decades of friendship, “He would always sign all of his texts, ‘By the way, it’s Bob.’”

Coulier has previously shared that his sobriety — he's four years sober as of last month — has helped him deal with grief in his life, both with the death of Saget and the death of his brother.

"I definitely went through the sorrow hat trick, so to speak," he told Tamron Hall in 2022. "My brother took his own life and he was actually the funniest person I've ever known. My brother, Dan. I was the one who found him at my dad's house down in the basement. A part of me died that day, as well, because I really loved my brother."

Coulier said he'd joke that he "picked the wrong time" to stop drinking, as his father died a few months later, followed by Saget. Just hours before the comedian died, Coulier was texting him, he said.

"He was texting me and making me laugh and we were texting back and forth and making each other laugh very, very hard," he recalled. "The last thing I said to him was 'Have a great show tonight.' That was my last real connection with Bob."

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He continued, "I thought to myself, after those three lives were gone, I would've never been able to feel all of that if I was drinking and it was really important to me to just feel that sorrow. There was nothing masking that, there were no layers that were covering that up. I thought to myself, 'This is what I should be doing.'"

Full House is streaming in full on Max.