Dog bounty hunter new wife

On looks alone, it’s clear that Duane “Dog” Chapman is a man to be reckoned with. His time-worn face, sunglasses and long blonde locks make a forceful statement wherever he goes, and if you’re on the wrong side of the law, you better hope the man better known as "Dog the Bounty Hunter" isn't looking for you, because he's very good at what he does: As he once told The New York Times, he’s captured more than 10,000 fugitives over the course of his career.

Chapman’s had a wild ride, including his rise to fame with the 2004 launch of his hugely popular reality TV series, also called Dog the Bounty Hunter—but his road to becoming a renowned bounty hunter and bail bondsman wasn’t a smooth one. He was once convicted of first-degree murder after a drug deal gone bad, in which his partner killed someone. Even though Chapman didn’t pull the trigger, he was sentenced to five years for the crime, receiving parole after two. He also told the Times he's "been convicted of robbery 18 times."

Bounty hunting may have been a profession Chapman joined to pay off child support, but it also helped turn his entire life around. These days, Chapman's on the hunt forBrian Laundrie, who's wanted in connection with the murder of his fiancé, Gabby Petito. (On Oct. 12, a coroner's report officially ruled Petito's death a homicide by strangulation.)

How did Chapman get involved in that case? By pure coincidence, it seems: He was actually on his honeymoon at the time in Florida, where Laundrie's parents live and where Laundrie was last seen before mysteriously disappearing in September 2021.

That’s right; Dog the Bounty Hunter is a newly married man! Keep reading to find out who he married, the uncanny way Chapman and his new wife met, and the tragedies and family drama that have troubled them along the way.

Is Dog the Bounty Hunter married?

If you didn’t know that Chapman had recently remarried, don’t worry—it just happened in early September! Many fans of Chapman know that his previous wife Beth, his partner in crime during his reality show days, passed away in 2019, making him a widower.

At the time, he said he’d never wed again. “I probably will [date], and I told [Beth] that,” he said. “What deal we said is I will never take ‘Beth’ off my chest, [where] I have her name... And I will never get married.”However, Chapman had another chance at love and grabbed it: Today he’s a married man once more.

Who is Dog the Bounty Hunter's new wife? 

Chapman’s new bride is Francie Frane. She is a former rancher and hunter who lives in Colorado, where one of Chapman’s homes is located. Before meeting Chapman, she was married and had two sons of her own.

These days, she’s taking on somewhat of a sidekick role with her new husband. Frane is even “kinda a natural” at bounty hunting, according to her man. He first took her on a hunt in 2020. “She just fit right in. She started getting leads and writing them down,” Chapman told Dr. Oz last year.

How old is Dog the Bounty Hunter’s new wife?

Frane is 52 years old, while Chapman is 68 years old. 

How did Dog the Bounty Hunter meet his new wife?

Chapman wasn’t looking for a wife when he met Frane; he just needed some yard work done. He called Frane’s home looking for her husband, Bob, an excavator. However, unbeknownst to Chapman, Bob had passed away about six months before his own wife did. Frane, who wasn’t that familiar with “Dog” or his show, returned his call and they both discovered that they were grieving the deaths of their spouses.

A friend of Frane’s had told her that she’d meet Chapman, but she brushed it off. She didn’t see herself being with anyone romantically again. She even initially refused Chapman’s advances, saying she'd also considering seeing him “if you go to church”—and he agreed. Church was their first date; they held hands and Chapman reportedly said, “Gotcha!”

He was smitten right away, even painting her nails in quarantine. “It’s going really good,” he told the US Sun in March 2020. “It’s a God relationship because it’s just like a miracle. It’s a miracle how we met and it’s a miracle how great we’re getting along…..both of us are allowed to talk about our spouses that are in Heaven - it's not like we're afraid to mention it or anything like that.”

When did Dog the Bounty Hunter get remarried?

When asked if he’d marry Francie in March 2020, Chapman said, "There will never be another Mrs. Dog but it looks like there will be a final Mrs. Chapman.” And true to his word, Chapman got down on one knee and in May 2020 they became engaged. 

Like many couples, Chapman and Frane had to contend with the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected their plans. However, they were finally married in Colorado Springs on September 2, with only close friends and family around; Frane wore a sleeveless white gown. Their honeymoon began in Florida, which is where they were when Laundrie went missing and people asked him to get involved in the hunt.

How many wives has Dog the Bounty Hunter had?

"I saw the scripture that says, 'God does not want a man to be alone,'" Chapman once shared in an interview. "That He knows we need a companion, whether we're a man or a woman." Chapman must have taken that verse seriously, because he’s been married five times. The first time was to La Fonda Sue Honeycutt, who he married when he was just 19. She filed for divorce upon his murder conviction. Next in line was Agness Tegnell, whom he married when he was 26 and out on parole after serving about 2 years in prison. They divorced but reunited briefly. 

Chapman’s third wife was Lyssa Rae Brittain—whom he met in a bar mere days before they got hitched. In his autobiography, Chapman said he offered $1,000 to her if she’d have his child—she must have agreed, because they stayed married for nine years.  

Chapman’s next wife was a former perp; he had tracked down Tawny Marie for drug possession charges, but hired her on as a secretary. They married when Chapman was 39 years old but separated two years later.

Beth Smith, his fifth wife, met him when she simply called Chapman for bail, she told Rosie O’Donnell in 2011 (she’d gotten picked up for shoplifting two lemons, which she denies she did). When she met him in person, she said she thought, “Oh yes, he will be mine.” They dated on and off for years until they married in 2006, and they stayed married until her death in 2019.

There was almost another wife—sort of. In January 2020, Dr. Oz shocked fans with a brief clip of Chapman tearfully asking a woman to marry him. The woman, Moon Angell, had been a close friend of Beth’s and had been spending time with Chapman, to the displeasure of some of his kids. On Oz’s show, Angell told Chapman that she only saw him as a friend. They both called it a fake proposal later. "Moon and I were not 'in a relationship' and I tried to prove that and it really hurt Moon's feelings, and she's the one that took the beating over it,” he said later.

What happened to Beth Chapman, Dog the Bounty Hunter's wife?

Most fans of Chapman’s are well-acquainted with Beth, the woman who was his wife during his reality show years. She was affectionately known as “Mrs. Dog” and called Chapman “Big Daddy.” She’s widely regarded as the love of his life.

Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with stage 2 throat cancer in 2017. The condition deteriorated into stage 4 and she passed away on June 26, 2019 at the age of 51.

According to Chapman, “the last few moments she said, ‘Come in here right now, in the bathroom.’ I went in and she said ‘Look at me.’ And I said, ‘yeah, you’re freaking beautiful baby.’ [And she said] ‘Look at me, Duane Chapman.’ And I did, I always saw Beth, and she said, ‘Please, let me go.’ And I didn’t even make a decision, I almost said, ‘I can’t.’ Before I could say ‘alright,’ she couldn’t breathe and I called the ambulance.”

Beth’s death weighed heavily on Chapman and he posted several times about her on social media.“She said Big Daddy your going to be so sad when I am not here on our next anniversary why did she have to be so right??” he posted on Instagram in May 2020.

Happily, Frane seems to have helped tremendously with his grief. "I scream & Cry Beth where are you why did you leave me," the reality star wrote on Instagram in April 2020, about 10 months after his wife died of cancer at age 51, "then I look up & see you Francie & the pain turns to a smile I LOVE YOU WOMAN !!"

Related: Kids, Kids, Kids! Get to Know Eddie Murphy's 10 Children and Their Mothers 

How many children does Dog the Bounty Hunter Have?

Chapman has 12 children in all, two sons with his first wife, three sons with his second wife (one of which sadly passed away a month after birth), two daughters and a son with wife number three, and two more with Beth. He also legally adopted Beth’s daughter. Many of his children appeared on Dog the Bounty Hunter. Frane herself has two boys.

Beth’s death was hard for all of them. “Each one copes differently, there is a few that really barely making it,” Duane said in an interview two months after Beth’s death. “We don’t know what to do. We haven’t read, we weren’t prepared. I lost my mother first, and when my mom passed away, I’m like, ‘I wish dad would have died first, you know, ’cause I love my mommy.’ So I went to them and said, ‘I’m so sorry that I didn’t die first and mom did.’”

It’s Chapman’s daughters that have really been calling him to account lately. "The boys are more like 'We love you dad whatever you want to do' but the girls are like 'Oh no you don't.' They keep me in check,” he said in 2020. Chapman’s daughters Lyssa and Cecily were furious when they thought Moon Angell was making the moves on her dad, for example. “I’m sure she’s threatening everything and everyone against him just so she can live in my momma’s room,” Cecily, 26 at the time, posted on Twitter. Lyssa, 32 at the time, called her “disgusting.” "Those girls [my daughters] really put me in the ground over the whole thing,” Chapman said later. “I have a lot of followers on my accounts but those girls beat me - Round 1! I don't want to mess with them.”

Lucky, Lyssa adores Frane, saying last year that “They are both so happy together and they are good for each other...Beth would approve - I honestly believe that Beth sent Francie for my dad - I feel like Beth and Bob are up there watching down over them." Unfortunately Cecily did not attend the wedding and said she never even met Frane.

Another daughter missed the wedding: Bonnie, 22. She, along with Garry, are the only two children Chapman and Beth had together. In a Facebook post on August 24, she says that Frane texted her that the reason she was not invited to the wedding was “my choice to participate in social justice and BLM protests with “The System” [on the Unleashed Entertainment network], and not condemn the streaming platform [Unleashed!]when they fired my father for using epithets. I’m sorry, but I can’t defend my Dad’s racism.” She continued, “he has embraced old prejudices and doubled down on racist and homophobic stereotypes.” Chapman vehemently denied the allegations, pointing to his own Apache heritage and the fact that his own daughter Lyssa is gay; he said he would lay down his life for a black or gay man.

Still, both Bonnie and Cecily, who is Beth’s daughter with another man, say they’ve been cut out of their dad’s life since Beth died, appearing on Inside Edition to say “I’m disappointed in you, and my mom would be, too, and you know it,” Bonnie said. They accused Chapman of neglecting them and cheating on Beth when she was alive. Cecily told TMZ that the two of them remind Chapman too much of Beth, and that’s why he’s keeping distance. Chapman wouldn’t talk about it. "We love Cecily and Bonnie very much, as we do all of our family. We pray for their health and happiness every day. Beyond this statement, we wish to keep any family issues private,” he and Frane said in a statement.

However, before the wedding, Frame said they made the “heartbreaking” decision to leave out certain people. "We've been through hell, him and I, in the past three years," Frane told Entertainment Tonight, "and I am not going to allow our day to be ruined by this nonsense." Chapman said, "Despite the sadness we feel at this rift in our family, Francie and I are looking forward to celebrating our wedding next week with the rest of our family and close friends."

There have been some tough times with his sons as well. In 2007, Chapman’s son Tucker sold a recording of his dad to the NationalEnquirer for $15,000—and it contained Chapman saying the n-word. Tucker was dating a black woman at the time, and the situation caused enough of an uproar that A&E suspended his reality show for a while. Dog admitted that he thought he had a “pass” to use the N-word, “like Eminem,” but later told Larry King he didn’t want to forget the experience because he learned a lesson and expressed love for Tucker.

Related: Meet Clint Eastwood's Kids! See the Acting Legend's 8 Children and Their Mothers 

What happened to Dog the Bounty Hunter's daughter? 

When Chapman took on the search for Laundrie, he mentioned that the case was personal to him. “Because I lost a daughter at about the same age, I know what the parents feel like,” he explained. Many people didn’t realize that one of Chapman’s own daughters had passed away.

Barbara Katy Chapman, was only 23 when she was killed in a car accident in Alaska, where she lived. She and her boyfriend had stolen a credit card; their vehicle ran off the road. According to Barbara’s mom, she “had gotten herself into a terrible mess… she was trying as hard as she could to put her life back together.”

The timing could not have been worse; Duane Chapman was scheduled to marry Beth the next day (Barbara was not attending). Chapman was notified of his daughter’s death early that morning and met with his children; they all decided that the wedding should go on.

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What happened to Dog the Bounty Hunter's new wife?

Who is bounty hunter new wife?

How old is Dog the Bounty Hunter's new wife Francie?

What does Francie Frane do for a living?