Chevy Chase marked a significant milestone in June 2025, celebrating his 43rd wedding anniversary with his third wife, Jayni Chase.

The couple’s journey began in the early 1980s, following Chevy’s two previous marriages. His first marriage was to Suzanne Hewitt from 1973 to 1976, and his second was to actress Jacqueline Carlin from 1976 to 1980. In June 1982, Chevy married Jayni, embarking on what would become his longest and most enduring relationship. Together, Chevy and Jayni have three daughters: Cydney, Caley, and Emily.

During a 1992 guest-hosting appearance on Saturday Night Live, Chevy humorously referenced his marital history while expressing gratitude to his “incredible, unflappable wife.”

“Uh… I want to say [her name is] Jane. Jayni! That’s right, Jayni,” Chevy joked, showcasing his comedic flair.

Beyond his comedic persona, Chevy Chase has also opened up about more serious aspects of his life. In the CNN documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, the Saturday Night Live veteran revealed the challenges he faced growing up in what he described as an abusive household, before eventually rising to fame in Hollywood. “I felt like this was an out-of-control woman,” he shared, shedding light on the complexities of his early life.

Keep scrolling for more information about Chevy’s three marriages.

Suzanne Hewitt

After briefly dating actress Blythe Danner while attending Bard College in the 1960s, Chevy Chase married his first wife, Suzanne Hewitt, in 1973. They were together for three years.

Chase has rarely spoken about his first marriage, though he blamed infidelity for the breakdown of the relationship while speaking to Rena Fruchter for the biography I’m Chevy Chase… and You’re Not.

“She had an affair and simply left. That was the end of that,” Chase alleged in the 2007 book.

Hewitt has never publicly discussed her marriage to Chase.

Jacqueline Carlin

Chevy Chase was barely out of his marriage to Suzanne Hewitt when he fell for actress Jacqueline Carlin. Their courtship was complicated by the fact that Carlin was reluctant to move to New York City while Chase was working on Saturday Night Live.

The comedian eventually decided to quit Saturday Night Live midway through its second season in 1976 so he could move to L.A. with Carlin. In the 2002 book Live From New York, Chase commiserated over having to choose between Carlin and his burgeoning stardom on SNL.

“Look, I would have stayed. There was this girl I wanted to marry who ended up throwing a candelabra at me,” Chase recalled in Live From New York. “[SNL creator] Lorne [Michaels] knew she was wrong for me, but I thought I was in love. I also felt after one year that we should all leave, that we should all take off at least one year and think this over, because otherwise it was going to become solipsistic — jokes about ourselves, showcases for characters as opposed to what it should be, which is a vehicle to take apart television.”

He confessed, “I’m still hurting, I still grieve for all those years that I could have had there. And you know, if Lorne had put his arms around me and given me a hug and asked me to stay, then I probably would have. But he didn’t.”

Chevy Chase’s family is ready to peel back the curtain and share a glimpse into the comedian’s drug abuse. In the new CNN documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, several relatives speak candidly about the actor’s struggles with cocaine and alcohol. According to Chevy’s wife, Jayni Chase, an ENT doctor called her one day […]

Chase and Carlin tied the knot only a few weeks after he’d quit SNL, in December 1976. They were together until 1980. (Carlin was reportedly married two other times, to Peter Byam Cannon and Terry Melcher, before her death from cancer at age 78 in July 2021.)

Jayni Luke Chase

Chevy Chase went through a very difficult few years in the early 1980s.

Around the same time as his marriage to Jacqueline Carlin broke down, Chase narrowly escaped death after being electrocuted on the set of his 1981 comedy Modern Problems. (The accident allegedly occurred when faulty wires short-circuited as Chase was filming a flying scene.)

Chevy spent several weeks in the hospital and struggled with severe depression before meeting his third wife, Jayni Luke Chase, on the set of 1981’s Under the Rainbow, where she was working as a production coordinator. They tied the knot in the Pacific Palisades on June 19, 1982.

Speaking to People in 1983, Chevy credited Jayni with helping him turn his life around after a particularly tough few years.

“I really didn’t have a carefree bachelor life. Mostly, I moped,” he admitted. “Sure, I’ve done drugs. I was growing up in the ’60s, and you could hardly avoid them. There really wasn’t any experimentation with drugs that I hadn’t tried. But I was never an over-the-line guy.”

Chevy went on, “When I met Jayni, what was I, a Bowery bum? She got me right out of the doldrums I’d been in for three years … There is no smoking of pot, no drugs, no drinking. It’s a very clean life.”

Chevy and Jayni share three daughters: Cydney, Caley and Emily. Jayni and all three daughters were by Chevy’s side in 2021 when he suffered from heart failure.

The Chase family opened up about Chevy’s life-threatening ordeal in the 2026 documentary I‘m Chevy Chase and You’re Not by explaining that Chevy developed cardiomyopathy. According to the Mayo Clinic, cardiomyopathy is a “disease of the heart muscle” that “causes the heart to have a harder time pumping blood to the rest of the body” and can contribute to heart failure.

“[He] has basically come back from the dead. He had heart failure,” Caley Chase explained in the documentary.

Saturday Night Live alum Terry Sweeney predicts CNN’s new documentary won’t make Chevy Chase look his best. Before I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not premiered on Thursday, January 1, Sweeney, 75, was asked about some of the story lines featured in the doc, including the alleged abuse he faced as an adult. “Boohoo … poor […]

Chevy was put into a medically-induced coma for around eight days. At the time, Jayni and her daughters were warned by doctors that they “might not get [Chevy] back.”

“[Doctors said] ‘We don’t know how present he’ll be. Prepare yourselves for the worst.’ He woke up, all he could do was use his voice,” Caley added.

However, Chevy was soon back to his old self when a nurse came in to adjust some medical equipment.

“She said, ‘I’m going to have to put this in here,’” Caley recalled. “And he said, ‘That’s what she said.’”

A few weeks later, Chevy released a statement to confirm that he was finally out of the hospital.

“I can only say how happy I am now to be back with my family,” Chase said in 2021. “I’m feeling good. I was in the hospital five weeks. A heat issue. So, for now, I’m around the house. Not going anywhere.”

Aside from his health woes, Jayni has remained by Chevy’s side through numerous controversies, including his scandalous 2012 departure from Community. Jayni staunchly defended her husband while promoting I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not.

“It’s been very hard and hurtful. We’ve been in love and we’ve been through some rough stuff,” she admitted to CNN in January 2026.

She added, “If Chevy says something, and you feel offended, it’s a little more on you than him. He takes risks. You can’t get where he got without being a risk taker. So, dial it back, get a sense of humor. He’s not an a**hole and neither are you.”