Dog The Bounty Hunter Has 13 Kids. Here's What We Know About Them

When Dog the Bounty Hunter, whose real name is Duane Chapman, and his merry band of helpers exploded onto our screens in the noughties, it was the start of a long and enduring television legacy. We weren't just obsessed with the long-haired bail bondsman and his no-nonsense approach to his work, but the tight-knit complexities of the entire Chapman family. After all, several of Dog's 13 children appeared on the show alongside their father to catch criminals who skipped out on their bail. Arguably, the show was just as much about the Chapman dynasty as it was about the thrill of the chase. 

While some of the Chapman kids stayed at their dad's side throughout the show, such as "Baby" Lyssa Chapman and Leland Chapman, others only popped in here and there for an episode or two, and some even opted to stay out of the spotlight altogether. The entertainment on our screens only tells us half the story of Dog's impressive pack. His children have faced numerous hardships throughout their lives, from substance misuse to teenage pregnancy, controversial projects, and even the death of a beloved mother. It's not all tragedy though, and if any family knows the meaning of a silver lining, it's this one. Here's what we know about Dog the Bounty Hunter's kids. 

Fans who follow "Dog the Bounty Hunter" star "Baby" Lyssa Chapman may find it difficult to remember what she was like as a teenager just joining her father's show. Her transformation has been jaw-dropping to watch, largely because Lyssa had a pretty rough start in life. After her father, Duane "Dog" Chapman, and her mother, Lyssa Rae Brittain split, she stayed with her mom and fell pregnant at just 14. She gave birth the day after her 15th birthday and had no support from her parents. She told Fox News in 2013, "Right after I had the baby my mom moved with her boyfriend. Basically, she just stuck us in a trailer and told us to pay rent. At one point it was just me and my daughter and I was coming up with $500 rent every month by babysitting." 

The situation only became worse for Lyssa as she continued to struggle financially. To cope, she would seek out relationships with men who could supply her with drugs. Her relationship with Dog was strained at the time, as she had made false abuse allegations against him a few years earlier. Thankfully, they were able to reconnect once "Dog the Bounty Hunter" started and have maintained a healthy relationship since. In the same interview with Fox News in 2013, Lyssa said she hadn't seen her mother since the death of her sister, Barbara, in 2006. 

Dog the Bounty Hunter's arrest record tells us a lot about how he turned his life around, but when he was younger, he was frequently on the wrong side of the law. In the '70s, Duane "Dog" Chapman was arrested and jailed for his involvement in the murder of a man in Texas. At the time of his incarceration, Dog was married to La Fonda Sue Darnell, who he had two of his kids with, Duane Lee Chapman. Jr. and Leland Chapman. Dog didn't know until many years later that he had fathered another child, Christopher Hecht, with an old girlfriend around the same time. 

Sadly, Christopher's mother, Debbie White, died by suicide when he was just a little boy. With no father figure in his life, Christopher was adopted by a woman called Gloria Hecht. Christopher was 19 years old when Dog learned of his son, and while he reached out to him, it wasn't a good situation. As The UK Sun reported in 2021, Gloria said things started well but began to deteriorate when Dog got together with his future wife, Beth Chapman. "He was totally singled out when Beth was alive. [Dog] was not a nice person to Chris after that," she explained, stating that her son called her numerous times to complain that his father was verbally abusive. Perhaps in part because of his troubled upbringing, Christopher has faced legal troubles in the past himself, including a 3-year sentence that was handed down in 2021. 

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Losing a child is a pain that no parent should ever have to face, but in 2006, Duane "Dog" Chapman couldn't avoid it — and on the morning of an incredibly important event. On his wedding day to Beth Chapman, Dog woke up to the news that his daughter from his marriage to Lyssa Rae Brittan, Barbara, had died the day before in a car crash. Beth was the one to deliver the news to Dog, who had to deal with the guilt of choosing not to invite his daughter to their wedding in the first place. He wrote in his autobiography "You Can Run, But You Can't Hide", via E! News, "It broke my heart not to include Barbara in my wedding. What she needed was some tough love. I would have done anything to help her get sober." 

Barbara had been a passenger in a stolen car driven by Scott Standefer II when, for reasons unknown, the car went off the road and into a tree. Barbara left behind a 4-year-old son of her own, Travis Drake-Lee. Conflicted over whether they should continue with the ceremony, Dog and his family sought the advice of their pastor before deciding to go through with the wedding in Barbara's honor. 

When you have as many kids as Duane "Dog" Chapman has, it must be difficult to make sure they all get equal attention. It's true that some feature more prominently in his various TV shows than others, and there's no doubt that his son, Leland Chapman, is his right-hand man when it comes to bounty hunting. Leland appeared in many seasons of "Dog the Bounty Hunter" and was always there to help his dad capture fugitives who should've been behind bars. During an appearance on the podcast "Chillin' with Ice" in 2024, Leland explained how he ended up working so closely with his family in the first place. 

"I would say probably by the time I was 7 or 8 years old, I was knocking at doors dressed as a newspaper person," he explained of his childhood on the hunt. "[The fugitive] would answer the door, I would ask for them... step out of the way, and [Dog] would just bust them." Leland's dedication to the family business only grew as the years went by. It even landed him in hot water in 2003 when he and his father captured Max Factor heir, Andrew Luster, in Mexico. Even though he was on the FBI's Most Wanted list, Mexican laws saw Leland and his father thrown in jail for several weeks before they eventually skipped out on their own bail and high-tailed it back to America. Their lawyers warned them not to return to the country. "I said I won't even go to Taco Bell bro, I'm out of here," he laughed.  

The death of Duane "Dog" Chapma's son, Zebediah Chapman, has to be one of the most tragic details about Dog the Bounty Hunter's life. After Dog was released from prison in the '70s, he married his second wife, Ann M. Tegnell. Together, they welcomed a son in 1980, Zebediah Chapman, but Zebediah died just a short time after his birth. The painful circumstances surrounding Zebediah's death are recounted in a post on Find a Grave, by Jolene Chapman. "I remember Colorado General (now the University of Colorado Medical Center) saying that they had never had such a small young preemie live. Everyone cheered Zeb on. Everyone prayed. Everyone believed. He lived far beyond what medical science said he would," she said. According to the website, Zebediah was buried in an unmarked grave. 

Further details on Zebediah's life and death are scarce, as Dog doesn't publicly talk about his loss. The couple welcomed two more sons, Wesley and James Robert Chapman before they divorced in 1982 after roughly three years of marriage. It could've been enough to break Dog's heart forever, but as we know, he went on to marry four more times and welcome many more children. 

Losing a parent is always a tough road to navigate, especially in the public eye. In 2019, Dog the Bounty Hunter's daughter Bonnie Chapman and her sister, Cecily Chapman, lost their mother, Beth Chapman, who died of throat cancer. Beth's illness was widely publicized as she often spoke candidly about her treatment. Beth and Dog presented a united front, even talking about her diagnosis on a TV special, "Dog and Beth: Fight of Their Lives" in 2017, but things unraveled when Beth wasn't there to hold everyone together. Dog's relationship with his daughters became strained after he met another woman shortly after Beth's death. Dog went on to marry Francie Frane in 2021, but Bonnie and Cecily allegedly weren't invited to the wedding. 

The siblings spoke of their frustration to TMZ at the time, explaining that they thought it may be because they reminded their father too much of his late wife. Tensions continued to rise when Bonnie claimed that Frane told her they were actually left off the guest list because they supported the Black Lives Matter movement. In a lengthy statement, Bonnie called her father out for racist and homophobic behavior. Dog and Frane responded with their own statement, asking the public to  "Please pray for Bonnie and Cecily to be released from whatever hold these people have on them," via People. 

Fans of the show will remember another prominent cast member, Duane "Dog" Chapman's son, Duane Lee Chapman, Jr. Like many in his family, Duane Lee is also a bail bondsman and worked alongside his father catching criminals on camera. The handsome figure soon became a fan favorite and a mainstay on the series alongside his brother, Leland Chapman, but things turned sour towards the end of the show's run in 2011. In one of the episodes that aired during the show's final season in 2012, Duane Lee told his stepmother, Beth Chapman (via The UK Sun): "You want me fired, you gotta fire me." Leland also wound up quitting at the same time. 

Family politics can often lead to tensions in business, and after working together for so long, perhaps it's not surprising that this partnership seemingly went up in a puff of smoke. After leaving the series, Duane Lee's public profile has virtually vanished. He was a reality TV staple for years, but retired from the spotlight and moved to Florida, where he reportedly embarked on a new career in finance. 

If you weren't aware of quite how many kids Duane "Dog" Chapman has, it may be because a few of them shunned the bright lights of a filming crew, preferring to keep their anonymity. Dog welcomed his son, Tucker Dee, with his third wife, Lyssa Rae Brittain In 1983. Tucker is also the brother of "Baby" Lyssa Chapman, and the late Barbara Chapman. Tucker didn't completely steer clear of the series as he appeared in a handful of episodes, but he was by no means a regular cast member. Tucker's low profile means that he's managed to keep his personal life largely private. In 2022, Lyssa shared a photograph of herself with her brother on Instagram, explaining in the caption that he had struggled with substance misuse and was currently in a treatment center. 

His half-brother, James Robert Chapman, has even less of a public footprint these days. James was born in 1982 to Dog and Ann M. Tegnell, and like Tucker, appeared on a couple of episodes before opting to keep clear of the show. At the time of writing in 2025, he doesn't have a social media presence. 

Wesley Chapman has certainly led an interesting life. Born to Duane "Dog" Chapman and his wife Ann M. Tegnell in 1980, Wesley wound up in foster care and later with his grandparents after his parent's divorce. In an interview with Insider, he detailed how traumatic his childhood was as a result. The abuse Wesley described was horrific, but he insists that it spurred him on to make something of his own life, going on to launch a charity organization called The Human Gathering that gained widespread attention from outlets such as Paper Magazine, Forbes, and Time. 

Members were required to pay a $5,000 fee, but the wheels soon began to fall off when people became suspicious about the project's legitimacy. Wesley, who was supposed to be living on and maintaining a ranch connected to the charity, wasn't able to keep up with the bills, and according to his partners, he began exhibiting strange and paranoid behavior such as prowling the property with a gun. One intern also claimed that he was driven to the ranch while blindfolded and was forced to undergo a grueling show of physical strength that included crawling under barbed wire, while Wesley yelled orders at him. When someone emailed Dog's family expressing concern over Wesley's finances, Beth Chapman replied that it was common for Wesley to leave a slew of unpaid debts in his wake. "There's a reason Wesley does not come around this family," she wrote.  

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Given the complicated romantic web Duane "Dog" Chapman has weaved over the decades, perhaps it's not surprising that he found out he had another son. On the anniversary of Beth Chapman's death in June 2023, Dog took to Instagram to share the news that he recently discovered he had fathered a son, Jon, many years prior. "For the last four years, this day was a terrible reminder of one of the greatest losses of my life," he wrote, alongside a photograph of Jon with his wife, Jodi. "But God redeemed this day when I discovered my son Jon, who I just met recently, was born on this day." He wished his son a happy birthday while also imploring those grieving to have faith in God. 

Because Jon was a somewhat late addition to the pack, he never appeared on his dad's show, "Dog the Bounty Hunter." Information regarding Jon's personal life is limited, but he certainly looks like a member of the Chapman family with his muscular, tattooed physique. Dog posted on his son's birthday again in 2024, sharing another photograph of Jon alongside Jodi. 

Garry  Chapman holds the distinction of being Duane "Dog" Chapman's youngest child (that we know of). Dog welcomed Garry alongside his wife, Beth Chapman, in 2001. Because of his young age, Garry didn't join in on the hunt, but that doesn't mean he's strayed too far from the family business. Garry has been a police officer since 2023, and he even found a missing child on his very first day on the job in DeKalb County, Georgia. Despite the devastating death of his mother in 2019, Garry seems to be carving out a safe and fulfilling life for himself, as he also got hitched in November 2024 at Fall Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee. 

He shared gorgeous photographs of the day on his Instagram page, including a snap of him kissing his wife against a backdrop of trees. "Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. (Mark 10:9) Grateful to begin this sacred journey with the one God has chosen for me," he wrote alongside the images. Another snap from the day shows Dog throwing his hands up and photobombing the couple in what would've otherwise been a posed photo. "He just doesn't know when to take things serious sometimes," wrote Garry in the caption, alongside a laughing emoji.