Kenny Rogers' Widow Wanda Shares She's Found Love Again — with Encouragement from Her Late Husband (Exclusive)

"Kenny gave me his very best and he wanted me to move on and be happy," Wanda Rogers tells PEOPLE in this week's issue

Kenny Rogers loved watching TV. So when he hit pause on the remote one day while sitting with his wife Wanda, she knew that whatever he was about to say was important.

Though the country superstar died in March 2020 at age 81, he'd been sick for several years beforehand, which gave him time to think about what he wanted for his family after he passed.

On the day he paused the TV, Rogers told Wanda, 56, something that was difficult to hear at the time, but something she's grateful for today: he wanted her to find love again.

"He said, 'I'm not going to be here forever. I want you to be happy,'" she tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "'You're young. I want you to have a full life past me.' And of course I was like, 'What? I don't want to talk about that. Turn the TV back on.'"

But now, three years after Rogers' death, Wanda has found love once more, something she says has been instrumental in both her and Rogers’ wish that they show their twin sons Justin and Jordan, 19, that it’s OK to move on.

Related: Kenny Rogers' Widow Wanda Opens Up for the First Time After Losing Singer: 'I Miss Everything About Him' (Exclusive)

"One of the big things is to show the boys that life goes on. And it does — I'm dating someone very special," she says. "Kenny gave me his very best and he wanted me to move on and be happy. That's a really big man to be able to say those words and mean it. I think it just shows the kind of guy he was."

Wanda and Rogers — who first met in 1993 when Rogers, on a blind date with another woman, stopped by the Atlanta restaurant where Wanda was working as a hostess — were married in 1997, and welcomed their sons seven years later.

While Wanda says it "did take me a minute to move on" after losing Rogers, the difficult journey was made easier by friends. She and her current partner were introduced by a friend of Rogers' who'd previously dated Wanda's sister years ago.

"He introduced me to a friend of his and he said, 'Look, if you don't date each other, you'll be friends forever. He is going to be in your friend arsenal forever,'" she recalls. "And we became friends at first."

That friendship soon grew into more, especially after Wanda took note of all of his traits that reminded her of her late husband, like his "leadership and his positive energy."

Related: Posthumous Kenny Rogers Album to Feature Unreleased Songs 3 Years After His Death

"It's funny because a few of my friends said, 'I just really feel like Kenny's a part of this somehow.' And I know that sounds weird," she says. "[But] he tells our kids, 'I'm not your dad. No one will ever take the place of your dad, but I’m here as your friend forever.'"

She continues: "It's been big shoes to step into after I was with this icon for all these years in a very special relationship. But it's really been an easy relationship."

As she forges ahead in her new relationship, Wanda is still taking care to keep Rogers' memory and legacy alive. In June, she curated an album culled from the singer's archives called Life Is Like a Song, compiling deeply personal tracks that he recorded between 2008 and 2011.

"I want to make sure his legacy grows and stays alive," she says. "I think Kenny would be beyond happy and proud of the album. Kenny's whole thing was he always wanted to say in a song what every man wanted to say and every woman wanted to hear. I think this would fall right into that category."

For more on Wanda Rogers, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.