Chevy Chase Reflects on Three Marriages and a Lifelong Love with Jayni Chase

Chevy Chase marked his 43rd wedding anniversary with his third wife, Jayni Chase, in June of 2025.

The couple began their relationship in the early 1980s when Chase had recently concluded two previous marriages, first to Suzanne Hewitt from 1973 to 1976 and then to actress Jacqueline Carlin from 1976 to 1980. Chase’s third marriage to Jayni Chase in June 1982 proved to be his longest and most enduring relationship. (Chevy and Jayni are still together today and are the parents of three daughters: Cydney, Caley and Emily.)

During a 1992 hosting appearance on Saturday Night Live, Chevy playfully referenced his three marriages while expressing gratitude for his “remarkable, unflappable wife.”

“Uh … I want to acknowledge [her name is] Jane. Jayni! That’s correct, Jayni,” Chevy quipped.

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Continue reading for additional details regarding Chevy’s three marriages.

Suzanne Hewitt

Following a brief courtship with actress Blythe Danner while attending Bard College in the 1960s, Chevy Chase wed his first wife, Suzanne Hewitt, in 1973. Their time together lasted three years.

Chase has rarely discussed his initial marriage, although he attributed the relationship’s failure to infidelity while speaking with Rena Fruchter for the biography I’m Chevy Chase… and You’re Not.

“She engaged in an affair and simply departed. That was the end of it,” Chase alleged in the 2007 book.

Hewitt has never publicly addressed her marriage to Chase.

Jacqueline Carlin

Chevy Chase had barely emerged from his marriage to Suzanne Hewitt when he became enamored with actress Jacqueline Carlin. Their romance was complicated by Carlin’s reluctance to relocate to New York City while Chase was working on Saturday Night Live.

The comedian ultimately decided to leave 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 reflected on the difficult choice between Carlin and his rising stardom on SNL.

“Look, I would have remained. There was this woman I wanted to marry who ultimately threw a candelabra at me,” Chase recalled in Live From New York. “[SNL creator] Lorne [Michaels] recognized she wasn’t right for me, but I believed I was in love. I also felt after a year that we needed to all step back for a while and reconsider, because otherwise it would become self-absorbed — jokes about ourselves, showcases for characters rather than what it should be, which is a platform to critique television.”

He confessed, “I’m still experiencing pain, I still mourn for all those years I could have had there. And you know, if Lorne had embraced me and asked me to stay, then I likely would have. But he didn’t.”

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Chase and Carlin exchanged vows just a few weeks after he had resigned from SNL, in December 1976. They remained together until 1980. (Carlin was reportedly married twice previously, to Peter Byam Cannon and Terry Melcher, before her passing from cancer at age 78 in July 2021.)

Jayni Luke Chase

Chevy Chase navigated a particularly challenging period in the early 1980s.

Around the same time that his marriage to Jacqueline Carlin was dissolving, Chase narrowly avoided tragedy after being electrocuted on the set of his 1981 comedy Modern Problems. (The accident purportedly occurred when faulty wiring caused a short circuit while Chase was filming a flying sequence.)

Chevy spent several weeks in the hospital and battled 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 married on June 19, 1982, in the Pacific Palisades.

Speaking to People in 1983, Chevy credited Jayni with assisting him in turning his life around after a difficult few years.

“I really didn’t lead a carefree bachelor existence. Mostly, I felt downcast,” he admitted. “Certainly, I’ve used drugs. I was growing up in the ’60s, and it was difficult to avoid them. There really wasn’t any experimentation with drugs that I hadn’t tried. But I was never someone who went overboard.”

Chevy continued, “When I met Jayni, what was I, a derelict? She pulled me out of the slump I’d been in for three years … There is no marijuana use, no drugs, no alcohol. It’s a very wholesome life.”

Chevy and Jayni are the parents of three daughters: Cydney, Caley and Emily. Jayni and all three daughters were present when Chevy experienced a health crisis in 2021.

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

“[He] has essentially returned from the brink of death. He suffered heart failure,” Caley Chase explained in the documentary.

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

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

However, Chevy quickly reverted to his characteristic 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 had finally been discharged from the hospital.

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

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

“It’s been very difficult and hurtful. We’ve been in love and we’ve weathered some rough patches,” 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 chances. You can’t achieve what he has without being a risk taker. So, take a step back, cultivate a sense of humor. He’s not an unpleasant person and neither are you.”