Dog The Bounty Hunter's Wife Francie Has Seriously Transformed
Dog the Bounty Hunter found new love with his sixth wife Francie. But why did they have to hire Navy SEALs to guard their wedding?
Transcript
00:00Dog the Bounty Hunter found new love with his sixth wife, Francie, but why did they
00:04have to hire Navy SEALs to guard their wedding?
00:07In his 2007 memoir, You Can Run But You Can't Hide, Dwayne Chapman revealed that he'd been
00:12repeatedly physically abused by his dad as a youngster.
00:15He wrote,
00:16"'I was expected to take it like a man, but I wasn't a man.
00:18I was a young boy looking for love and approval from my father.
00:22I was desperate for his affection, so I ignored the pain.'"
00:25Sadly, his sixth wife, Francie Frayn, also experienced abuse as a child.
00:30While appearing on the Choosing God episode of the podcast Passed to Power with Amy Alain
00:34and LaTan in 2021, the sixth Mrs. Dog opened up about the trauma she suffered in her childhood.
00:40Frayn revealed that she'd been a victim of sexual abuse, but that her experiences were
00:44so traumatic, she'd repressed all memories until adulthood.
00:47The Colorado native was able to draw upon her faith to help deal with all the emotional
00:52damage once they resurfaced.
00:53"'The Lord chased me down and knocked me down later in my life.
00:56I had never experienced a love like this in my life, and I ran to him with arms open.'"
01:01Dwayne Chapman and Francie Frayn have racked up a lot of marriages between them.
01:05It's the sixth for Chapman and the fourth for Frayn.
01:08Unfortunately, Frayn suffered at the hands of her first two ex-husbands.
01:12In 2024, she told Naples Daily News that she was left isolated when she broke free of her
01:17first abusive marriage.
01:19She added that she was also badly treated by her second husband, but luckily, she had
01:23a much stronger support network by that point.
01:26She said,
01:27"'I did have these amazing people that came alongside me and helped me get a place to
01:30live and helped me to start getting into counseling and start getting some healing.'"
01:34Frayn later enjoyed a much happier marriage with an excavation contractor named Robert
01:38Bob Frayn, who sadly died from cancer in 2018.
01:42So what did Francie Frayn do before she became immersed in the crazy reality TV world of
01:47her fourth husband, Dwayne Chapman?
01:49Well, for much of her adult life, she worked as a rancher in her native Colorado.
01:53And judging by her Instagram account, she hasn't entirely abandoned the ranching lifestyle
01:57since getting involved with TV's premier bounty hunter.
02:00Captioning one particular Instagram snap in which Chapman appears to be riding a tractor,
02:05Frayn wrote,
02:06"'Let's see if we can show this bounty hunting tough guy how to run some equipment, like
02:09us country folks do.'"
02:10In another snow-capped pic of her beau, Frayn gleefully explains to her followers how she
02:15managed to persuade Dog to get a snowmobile.
02:18Chapman didn't come alone.
02:19When Frayn married the bounty hunter, she also inherited his massive brood, which keeps
02:23growing and growing.
02:24In 2023, Chapman learned that he had an adult son named John, taking his tally of children
02:29from previous relationships up to an almighty 13.
02:32Luckily, Frayn seems to have a good relationship with the majority of stepchildren she's inherited.
02:37Lisa Chapman told The Sun that Frayn has been respectful of her former stepmother, Beth,
02:41and said of her father,
02:42"'He's the happiest I've seen him in a long time.
02:45He's so in love and wants to spend the rest of his life with Francie.'"
02:48Frayn also has a family of her own, albeit a much smaller one — two sons and a grandson
02:53— and thankfully, they also appear to have welcomed Chapman with open arms.
02:57Discussing their first meeting, she told E.T.,
02:59"'I had them come over and Dwayne shows up at the door and I think my son sat there for
03:03five minutes and couldn't say a word because he was shell-shocked.
03:06Now they love him.
03:07My grandson calls him Grandpa Dog already.'"
03:09"'They love him.'"
03:10Both Chapman and Frayn have struggled with drug problems in the past.
03:14Chapman with crack cocaine in the wake of his mother's death in the mid-1990s, and Frayn
03:18with Adderall.
03:19In a candid 2023 interview with CBS 42, Frayn revealed she'd once been addicted to Adderall,
03:24typically prescribed for those diagnosed with ADHD, and that, once again, she'd found strength
03:29from her religious beliefs in tackling the issue.
03:32The former rancher explained that she'd wrestled with the devil all night long to kick the
03:36habit.
03:37Both Frayn and Chapman are now clean.
03:38Indeed, thanks to a little help from his new wife, the bounty hunter has also given up
03:42smoking.
03:44In another example of the positive impact she's had on his life, Frayn has even managed
03:48to persuade her husband to try juicing, a lifestyle change which has helped reduce both
03:52his blood pressure and his weight by an impressive 30 pounds.
03:56Dwayne Chapman spent 18 months in a Texas jail after being convicted of third-degree
04:00murder in 1976.
04:02But that shady past is unlikely to have deterred Francie Frayn from dating the reality TV star.
04:07After all, she's best friends with the former career criminal.
04:10Yes, the former rancher is close pals with Katie Souza, a one-time violent drug addict
04:14who's been sentenced to 12 years in a federal prison.
04:17But just like Chapman, the convict has managed to turn her life around, and after finding
04:21God, she now runs a ministry designed to help prisoners across the country do the same.
04:26Frayn met Souza in the wake of her third husband Bob's death.
04:29Frayn found solace in Souza's faith-based teachings, telling Coastal Breeze News,
04:33"...I started listening every day, and I started going to anywhere she was teaching.
04:37I drove there.
04:38I flew there."
04:40Katie Souza was instrumental in Frayn and Chapman's first meeting, and even officiated
04:43their wedding.
04:44She also teamed with Frayn for a new initiative, helping trafficked and abused women.
04:49Chapman was devastated when his wife of 13 years, Beth, died from cancer in 2019.
04:54Sadly, Frayn knew exactly what he was going through, as she'd also lost her husband Bob
04:58to cancer just a few months prior.
05:01To hear Frayn tell it, meeting Chapman almost seemed like destiny.
05:04Just three days after Beth passed away, Katie Souza told Frayn that she had a vision that
05:08Frayn would meet Chapman.
05:10Frayn told her she was nuts, but six months later, Chapman ended up calling her out of
05:14the blue.
05:15Unaware that Bob had passed away, he was calling to hire Bob to fix his driveway.
05:19Instead, Frayn and Chapman bonded over their mutual grief.
05:22"...We're both still grieving.
05:25We're never gonna leave Bob and Beth behind."
05:28Frayn told ET,
05:29"...As soon as I hung up the phone, I called my girlfriend and was like, are you sitting
05:33down right now?
05:34Because you're not going to believe who I just talked to."
05:37On Labor Day weekend 2021, Dwayne Chapman and Francie Frayn walked down the aisle together
05:41at an intimate Colorado Springs ceremony in front of 100 of their nearest and dearest.
05:46It's fair to say, however, that the nuptials didn't exactly run smoothly.
05:50According to the Daily Mail, Chapman was forced to hire extra security, including Navy SEALs
05:55and German Shepherds, after an anonymous hater reportedly issued a threat to spoil the bride's
05:59crystal-adorned mermaid dress with paint.
06:02There were also reports that one guest had their car tires slashed.
06:05Reportedly, some unnamed guests believe the incidents were related to a feud between Chapman
06:10and his daughter Bonnie.
06:11Bonnie, along with Chapman's stepdaughter Cecily, weren't invited to the wedding, reportedly
06:15because Chapman disagreed with Bonnie's activism on behalf of social justice causes.
06:20For their part, Cecily and Bonnie said that Chapman was both racist and homophobic, and
06:24accused him of infidelity while married to Beth.
06:26"...Bonnie is being brainwashed."
06:28Prior to the wedding, Chapman told People magazine,
06:31Despite the sadness we feel at this rift in our family, Francie and I are looking forward
06:35to celebrating our wedding next week with the rest of our family and close friends.
06:39"...As heartbreaking as it is, we had to make a decision that was very difficult for us."
06:46Fraine is a committed Christian.
06:47In fact, the former rancher is so invested in her faith that she believes her relationship
06:52with Dwayne Chapman is all part of God's plan.
06:55In a candid chat with Naples Daily News, Fraine explained that she initially thought that her
06:59husband had been brought into her life so the pair could help each other heal from their
07:02respective losses.
07:03However, the Colorado native now understands that they have a higher calling.
07:07It's so much bigger than just that.
07:09It was God using us to change people's lives.
07:12It was this love story that God brought us together.
07:14Fraine regularly takes to social media to offer fans spiritual words of encouragement,
07:19posting things such as,
07:20"...keep believing.
07:21Even when God doesn't answer your prayers how you want him to, there's still a miracle
07:25in motion."
07:25She and Chapman will often offer their testimony at faith-based events such as the Southwest
07:30Believers Convention and Fire in the Valley Conference.
07:33Having gone through several abusive relationships herself, Francie Fraine is now determined
07:37to assist others who have endured similar struggles.
07:40With the help of her husband and minister friend, Katie Souza, Fraine launched a new
07:4418-month program named The House of Bounty.
07:46This initiative, which began in their adopted hometown of Marco Island, Florida, is designed
07:51to provide refuge and recovery for abused and trafficked women.
07:54Fraine told Naples Daily News,
07:56"...they would live there and they would go through stages of the program and graduate
07:59to different levels.
08:00We want to help them be able to get healed and whole and get out of the life and get
08:04out of their abusive situations and help find what their destinies are."
08:07Any women hoping to join the program will first have to prove that they're clean before
08:11being accepted, with Fraine insisting that they're not providing a rehab facility or
08:15halfway house.
08:16The Colorado native also stated that Chapman's Dog Foundation would also set up camp in the
08:20same area alongside Souza's ministry.
08:23"...we feel like we're being called to this, so we're all in, and we're going to make a
08:26move together."
08:28Fraine might not have had any idea who Dog the Bounty Hunter was when they first started
08:32talking back in 2019, but she soon threw herself into his crazy fugitive-chasing lifestyle.
08:37During a chat on The Dr. Oz Show in 2020, the reality TV star revealed that not only
08:42was his future wife more than happy to join him on his latest mission, but she was good
08:46at it.
08:46"...I know she's a hunter.
08:47Her and her two sons have hunted bow hunt, so they track, they look for things that the
08:51prey leaves behind, and so she's kind of a natural."
08:54Chapman didn't specify the nature of his first shared bounty hunting experience with Fraine,
08:58but he was certainly impressed with what he saw, adding,
09:01"...she started getting leads and writing them down.
09:03So there's more than just tracking and hunting, and she's really, really good at that."
09:07Sadly, she hasn't yet got the chance to show off her skills on camera.
09:10The reality show Dog's Dirty Dozen, in which she filmed scenes, never made it to air,
09:14and her husband's follow-up Dog Unleashed was also pulled after production company
09:19Unleashed Entertainment claimed that he'd breached his contract.
09:22Dwayne Chapman might've sported the same wild mullet since rising to fame as reality TV's
09:27premiere bounty hunter, but Fraine isn't afraid to mix things up when it comes to her style.
09:31To celebrate their second wedding anniversary in 2023,
09:34Chapman uploaded a loved-up snap of himself and Fraine all smiles on Instagram,
09:39and the latter debuted a striking new look,
09:41ditching her typical curls for straightened hair and showing off a new piercing on her upper lip.
09:45Chapman wrote,
09:46My dearest Francie, I love you so much more every single day,
09:49and you love me with an unconditional love. You allow me to honor Beth whenever I need to,
09:54as I do you about honoring Bob. Francie, you have brought me closer to Jesus and
09:58my destiny as an evangelist. I weep as I write this. I love you, my honey, forever."