Duane “Dog” Chapman and his fianceé Francie Frane tied the knot in Colorado on Thursday. This Is the second marriage for both as they both lost their previous spouses to cancer In 2019. After the death of his first wife, Beth, Chapman said in September 2019 that he would never marry again. He proposed to Frane in May 2020. Entertainment Tonight‘s Kevin Frazier Interviewed the couple ahead of their nuptials on Tuesday, and they explained that they would be writing their own vows and honoring their late spouses during the ceremony.
“We have been doing that all along,” Frane said. “We have done that privately, and in our vows, we will be honoring them. We honor them all of the time. And so we will continue to do that throughout their lives. Throughout our life together, we will continue to do that. They will be a part of that always.” However, there was a certain amount of drama that hung over the ceremony due to the fact that Chapman’s daughter Bonnie wasn’t invited to the wedding due to accusations that her father is racist and homophobic.
In the same Entertainment Tonight interview, Chapman made some bigoted statements concerning his use of the n-word slur. “I have never been a racist,” Dog claimed. “I’m 33.5 percent Apache. But because of over 15 years ago, I have an Achilles’ heel because I used the wrong word.”
In 2007, Chapman’s show was canceled by A&E after he went on a racist rant about his son’s girlfriend at the time and used the n-word several times. “I thought I had a pass in the Black tribe to use it, kind of like Eminem,” Chapman told ET. Interviewer Kevin Frazier asked who gave him “the pass,” and Chapman replied “the brothers.” After Frazier followed up and asked for more specifics, Chapman claimed that he got “the pass” in prison.
“I had just gotten out of prison in 1979 after spending time, 18 months in Texas and it was probably three-fourths from the Black tribe. So that was a word that we used back and forth, as maybe a compliment,” Chapman said. “My pass expired for using it but no one told me that.”
“To say a racist name doesn’t qualify to make you a racist,” Chapman argued, but Frazier held his ground, saying, “If you use that word, if you use it in your regular everyday life, it makes you a racist.” Chapman also addressed Bonnie’s allegations that he’s homophobic, citing his relationship with his daughter, Lyssa. “She’s been fed what to say,” he said. “I have three men on my staff that are gay. My daughter is gay, Baby Lyssa. I don’t understand why anybody would ever say that.”
Chapman went on to claim that he would “lay down” his life “for a gay man or a black man” and argued that Bonnie had been “brainwashed.” Allegedly, the drama began after Chapman’s upcoming show Dog Unleashed was dropped by Unleashed TV, although Bonnie is still with the production company. Unleashed TV said in a statement to ET that Chapman “used racial and homophobic epithets to attack young African American kids who star with his daughter in UTV’s The System, a show that profiles police misconduct and follows protests against white supremacy in policing.”
“As far as the idea that I’m being brainwashed, this is the dumbest thing my father has ever said,” Bonnie said in a statement. “I didn’t believe he would go this far to discredit me so much as to say I was brainwashed. I am concerned about him. He has begun to believe crazy conspiracy theories. The only credibility my dad has to speak about brainwashing is perhaps as a victim.”