This widower has the wow factor.
Derek Flynn, 88, has stumbled into newfound fame after his buddy, Nigel Hobdey, 61, posted in a Facebook group for Benidorm, Spain, encouraging people to “say hello” in the event that they saw the Wales resident traveling alone.
Flynn claims he has posed for at the least 2,000 selfies throughout his 21-day vacation, which he took to relive memories he made together with his late wife, Maevis, who died two years ago.
“I can’t walk down the road without someone stopping me,” the Robert De Niro lookalike told The Sun on Friday. “It’s blown up. I’ve gone from nothing to massive.”
His pal Hobdey desired to make sure that “he was being sorted” — and he sure is. The post generated hundreds of comments and a whole lot of photos, as fans flocked to snap a selfie with Flynn.
Hobdey told The Mirror he’s just “glad I could make his dreams come true.”
“I just went together with it at first, pondering, ‘How the hell do they recognize me?’” Flynn explained to The Sun.
The senior doesn’t have a smartphone, which implies he hasn’t been capable of track his web stardom.
“Persons are saying, ‘What’s he doing [sitting] with six girls having a drink?’ I said, ‘I inform you, what about you? You’re [sitting] at home watching ‘Tipping Point’ and eating a packet of crisps, and he’s on the market with women,’” Hobdey told The Mirror.
He continued: “I do know who’s the poor guy there. There’s people on the market wishing they were Derek.”
“We were dying to satisfy him,” said bargoer Brenda Atherton, 69, per The Sun. “He’s essentially the most big name in Benidorm.”
“He’s a real gentleman,” noted Amanda Garcia, 44, who works on the Pueblo Benidorm Hotel, where Flynn is staying. “My job has been to make sure that he doesn’t get mobbed an excessive amount of.”
“He’s throughout Instagram. He’s a legend,” added an 18-year-old fan of the retired shoe seller.
The stunned widower said his fans scream his name, offer him drinks and even ask him out on dates.
“I’ll be taking them up on the offer,” he quipped.
Despite the eye, Flynn said the celebrity isn’t inflating his ego, although he’d “never say no to a selfie.”
The traveling senior, who previously lived in Australia for 20 years, has been world wide, but admitted Benidorm “is one of the best.” He’s spent his time well in Spain, singing Dean Martin ditties — his favorite is “Little Ole Wine Drinker, Me” — on the resort bars.
“I’m having the time of my life,” he gushed.
