Famous Families
The Hap, Hap, Happiest Family! Meet ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’ Star Chevy Chase’s 4 Children
He’s been making audiences laugh for years in the National Lampoon’s Vacation film series, but Chevy Chase doesn’t joke around when it comes to being the dad of his four kids. In fact, Chevy takes his role as a father to his children, Bryan, Cydney, Caley and Emily, very seriously.
The beloved comedian experienced fatherhood for the first time when his eldest child, Bryan, was born in 1979. At the time, Chevy was recently separated from his second wife, Jacqueline Carlin, with whom he tied the knot in 1976. According to Glamour Path, the identity of Bryan’s mother has never been disclosed.
Following Bryan’s birth, it wasn’t long before the Saturday Night Live alum found love with Jayni Luke. Chevy and the writer married in 1982, and the following year they expanded the actor’s family when their first child together, Cydney, was born in 1983. Their daughter Caley arrived one year later in 1984, followed by their youngest, Emily, in 1988.
When Chevy married Jayni nearly four decades ago, she did a lot more than give him three children. The Emmy Award winner said his beloved spouse helped him “[get] out of the doldrums” he’d be in for years. “When I met Jayni, what was I, a Bowery bum?” he told People in 1983, noting she had a “very straight” influence of “no smoking of pot, no drugs, no drinking.”
Fortunately, Chevy was relieved to walk away from his “self-destructive” life. “I’m a lot happier now,” he gushed to the outlet. “I’m not that person … whoever that guy was.”
Fatherhood has changed Chevy in more ways than one. In addition to leaving behind his old bad habits, the Caddyshack actor revealed he also stopped taking gigs in romance films after he had children. “Once I got married and had kids, I moved away from romantic roles because it seemed wrong to have my [daughters] wondering why Daddy was kissing someone else,” he once said, according to MovieTalk.
Chevy’s longtime friend Jane Fonda said parenthood also “brought out a new, non-cynical sense of humor” in the star. “I enjoy this new peek into Chevy Chase. And I think he is a riot with his daughter,” she told People. “Every child should have such a father.”
Scroll through the gallery below to learn more about Chevy’s four children!
