More than two years after Duane “Dog The Bounty Hunter” Chapman lost his wife, Beth Chapman, to cancer, the bounty hunter and reality television star is now a married man again. He and Francie Frane tied the knot on Sept. 2, 2021.
Dog lost Beth in 2019 after her cancer returned and struck up the relationship in the spring of 2020. By May, Dog had proposed. “I think I had gone to pick up some food, and then when I came back, he had all the lights turned down with just a few lights on and a bunch of candles lit. So when I came in, I was like, ‘Wow, this is awesome,’” Francie told The Sun when sharing the news of their engagement. “Then he said, ‘Come in, sit down because I need to talk to you. I know that God brought you into my life, and I don’t want to spend one moment of it without you. ‘He said, ‘Will you marry me and spend the rest of our lives together?’ Who can say no to that? It was wonderful.”
As the two begin the next chapter of their lives together, here’s what you need to know.
1. Francie Frane Is A Colorado Rancher.
Francie is a rancher who resides near Dog’s home, according to The Sun, which first published photos of Dog and Francie holding each other.
2. Francie Frane Is A Widow.
Francie and Dog were initially brought together through tragedy. He initially called Francie’s husband to do some landscaping work on the family property. However, Francie informed Dog that her husband, Bob passed away just a few months before his wife, Beth.
“We hooked up on the phone and started talking to each other, crying and consoling each other. And then one thing led to another,” Dog said in May 2020. “It’s just incredible that I’ve been able to meet someone like her.” Dog also said that for the ten months after Beth’s death, he would sit around and cry, asking, “ ’Where’s my Bethie?’ ” while caught in his despair. “So with Francie, I’m allowed to speak about Beth… “We cry, and we hold each other.” Their shared grief has allowed Dog to process his feelings and move on with his life.
3. Francie Is Helping Dog Live His Best Life.
“They go to church three times a week, and dad is trying to give up smoking – she is a good woman for my dad,” Dog’s daughter, Lyssa Chapman, told The Sun in 2020. “He’s the happiest I’ve seen him in a long time – he’s so in love and wants to spend the rest of his life with Francie. They both lost their spouses to cancer, so they know what it’s like to go through that, and they are helping each other through it,” she explained, adding that they’re on the same page about their pasts. “But, at the same time, they are being very respectful of each other’s grieving process, and they’re not trying to replace each other’s partner,” Lyssa said.
4. Duane’s Daughters Approve of Francie.
“Love is in the air,” Lyssa tweeted above an article sharing news of the new romance. Lyssa wasn’t a fan of Dog’s last girlfriend, his longtime assistant, Moon Angell, who she and Rainy call “Moon-Gate.” Meanwhile, Dog’s other daughter, Bonnie Jo Chapman, agreed with Dog’s new romance and said that her mom, Beth, would approve of Francie too.
“Everyone who’s judging my father should sure pray that they never have to lose their loved one and get judged for trying to fill the void. Your opinion is invalid. My mother would’ve wanted him to be happy. Now please shut up and let my dad live in peace,” Bonnie posted on social media.
5. Francie Shares Dog’s Faith.
“April 21, [2020]. What we thought was the end has become just the beginning,” Francie posted to an Instagram account attributed to her name. The handwritten note seemed to celebrate her new relationship with Dog, but commenters pointed out, it was a Christian Bible quote — Deuteronomy 28:13. “You are the head and not the tail. I will walk alongside you everywhere God leads us. You are my woman created by my rib, not by my heel, and you will walk by my side all the days of our lives.”
“Well, I fell in love,” Dog said when speaking about his relationship with Francie during a September 2020 episode of The Dr. Oz Show. “She’s a Christian and Christians you got to marry them or you don’t get no smooches. I just felt that I have known what love is and I went to the Bible, Dr. Oz. In Genesis it says, ‘God does not expect or want a man to be alone.’”
“So I said, ‘God, I don’t have to go to Christian.com or any of those things, you gave Adam the girl. I need a girl,’” he added. “You know the kind I need, and you know exactly what I need. The next day and I didn’t know when I met her that God had answered the prayer and had somebody already ready for me. Then as I started falling in love, I remembered the prayer, and God said, ‘How’s that?’”