Two Years After Losing His Wife Beth to Cancer, Dog the Bounty Hunter Remarries; Finding Love After Loss

The wedding comes more than two years after Dog's wife Beth Chapman died of throat cancer. Initially diagnosed with stage two throat cancer in 2017, Chapman was declared cancer-free when doctors were able to successfully remove her tumor. A year later, she learned that the cancer had spread to her lungs, and seven months later she passed away.

The Chapman family attracted attention in August when Dog's daughters Cecily and Bonnie revealed to TMZ that they had not been invited to his wedding. Bonnie explained the falling out in a lengthy Facebook post, citing her father's use of racial slurs and criticism of her choice to participate in Black Lives Matter protests. "I'm sorry, but I can't defend my Dad's racism," she wrote.

In addition to this tension, Cecily and Bonnie believe that they were snubbed because they look too much like their mother, Beth. "What I'm seeing personally is just my dad is having a hard time dealing with the fact that maybe he's not going to be able to replace my mom and that me and Bonnie bring a lot out from my mom and he sees our mom in us," Cecily told TMZ.

In a statement to E! News, Dog's rep dismissed the allegations as a "false and a misguided attempt to derail our wedding."

Dog began dating Frane in 2020, and the pair bonded over their mutual experience of losing spouses to cancer. Dog took comfort in having a partner that he could be open with about his mourning. "With Francie, I’m allowed to speak about Beth, we speak about her husband. We cry. We hold each other," he told TMZ live.

In an exclusive interview with SurvivorNet, Duane 'Dog' the Bounty Hunter talked of Beth's determination as she battled with cancer.

Grieving a Loved One

The American Cancer Society emphasizes that grieving the loss of a loved one is a process, and it is a process that can take a long time. It is also a process that can look very different for different people.

In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Marianna Strongin discussed the variability of the grieving process. She described the five commonly-discussed stages of grief (including denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) as "tools to help us frame and identify what you may be feeling." These stages can help us understand what we are going through, but it is important to acknowledge that "they are not linear and can occur in a variety of ways," Dr. Strongin said.

John Duberstein’s experience of losing his wife, writer Nina Riggs, to metastatic triple negative breast cancer, taught him the importance of acceptance. The few conflicts the couple had while Nina was sick came up because John wanted life to go “back to normal,” he told SurvivorNet. Nina saw things differently: “She wanted to embrace the existence that she had, even before she knew she was going to die imminently. I did not want to talk about what was going to happen with me after Nina died. Nina is the one that really brought it up, she brought it up a number of times."

When Nina did pass away, John realized how important those uncomfortable conversations were for him to move forward. Grieving the loss of a loved one is an inevitably painful process, but understanding that different people experience that pain differently can help you accept your own journey forward.

John Duberstein, who lost his wife to cancer, explains why tough conversations are worth it.

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