Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman Engaged: ‘Dog the Bounty Hunter’ Fans Spark Vibrant Reaction on Social Media

Dog the Bounty Hunter is an engaged man! Duane “Dog” Chapman is planning on tying the knot with girlfriend Francie Frane after getting together earlier this year, the reality personality revealed Monday. Dog, who lost wife Beth Chapman to cancer in June 2019, is planning the”biggest wedding there’s ever been” and “one hell of a party,” he revealed in a new interview with The Sun.

Having gone public with the Colorado rancher just last month, Dog has been open about his love with Frane on social media prior to their big engagement news. Keep scrolling to read all about the romantic proposal and see fans’ reactions to the big news.

Proposal story

Frane revealed of proposal to The Sun, “I wasn’t expecting it at all. I think I had gone to pick up some food and then when I came back he had all the lights turned down with just a few lights on and a bunch of candles lit. So when I came in I was like, ‘Wow, this is awesome’. Then he said, ‘Come in, sit down because I need to talk to you.’”

“So I put all the food in the kitchen and I came in and he said, ‘I know that God brought you into my life and I don’t want to spend one moment of it without you,’” she continued, tearing up. “And he got down on one knee and he opened the ring box and he said, ‘Will you marry me and spend the rest of our lives together? Who can say no to that? It was wonderful.”

How they met

The couple first met when Dog reached out via phone to ask Frane’s husband to do some yard work on his Colorado home. When Frane broke the news that her husband had died after a devastating cancer battle recently, Dog shared his own story or loss. The two then began to talk on the phone regularly, sharing with one another their deepest feelings, and the relationship grew from there. 

“They are both lost their spouses to cancer so they know what it’s like to go through that and they are helping each other through it,” Dog’s daughter, Lyssa Chapman, told The Sun in March. “But at the same time they are being very respectful of each other’s grieving process and they’re not trying to replace each other’s partner. Beth would approve – I honestly believe that Beth sent Francie for my dad – I feel like Beth and Bob are up there watching down over them.”

Wedding planning

The couple now plans to marry after the coronavirus pandemic eases, with plans to invite all of Dog’s 12 children, Frane’s two sons with her late husband, their grandchildren, and all the fans who have cheered them on. “I’ve had so many fans ask ‘When you marry Francie, are you going to let your fans come? So we’re word negotiating right now because I want to open it up,” Dog told The Sun.

“I would love to have the biggest wedding there’s ever been. I’m sorry but that’s just me. I hope I can talk Francie into it and open it to my fans, the ‘Dog Pound,’ to everybody,” he continued. “It would be one hell of a party and it’s just what people need right now. I told Francie, people they need a little love after being locked down. I love the idea of that.”

Too soon?

As for people who have criticized the pair for moving on so soon after the death of their spouses, the reality personality said, “You know there’s always going to be haters, and I probably arrested half of them.”

Frane added, “I think too that there’s always going to be people who say we did this wrong or we did that wrong or we’ve moved on too quickly or too fast. But the truth is that both of us have spent three years walking alongside our spouses sick and we know that God brought us together and that’s why we don’t believe that it’s too soon, and because we both have done our share of screaming and crying and asking why. Then for us to come together the way that we did and build this friendship because of what we’ve been through, that turned into a love story. We don’t believe that it’s too soon.”

Fans react

Dog the Bounty Hunter fans were quick to share their thoughts on the engagement online, with many expressing happiness for Dog being able to move on and continued grieving of Beth’s death.

Fans react

Others took that grieving to another level, saying it was “too soon” for Dog to move on with his new love. 

Fans react

The vast majority, however, were happy to wish the newly-engaged pair all the best as they move forward with their relationship. 

Congratulations to the happy couple!