Wesley Chapman: Troubled Childhood and Inspiring Life of Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman’s Son

Wesley Chapman, best known for being one of the sons of Duane “Dog” Chapman, chose not to follow in his father’s footsteps but still became a very successful businessman.

Duane, best known for “Dog the Bounty Hunter” has 12 children, and Wesley is one of them. He was born on November 14, 1980, but, unfortunately, his TV star father and his mother, Anne Marie Tegnel, separated when he was only one year old.

According to Wesley, Anne protected herself by marrying another man as she needed to feel safe. However, his mother’s new partner turned out to be a very dark person, reported Learn True Health.

Wesley Chapman’s difficult childhood

He would continuously abuse of Wesley and his younger brother (who was mentally disabled) emotional, physical, and sexually.

At some point, doctors also believed that he was a “functioning mentally-handicapped person,” so he had to take medication to “help” with his symptoms.

Things kept getting hard for him at the age of six as his mother was dealing with several difficulties and ended up abandoning him and his siblings.

Due to all the negativity that surrounded Wesley when he was a boy, he grew up being angry. It made him feel that he was worthless and even thought about committing suicide.

Suicidal thoughts

“I played the victim role, and I was labeled so much. I didn’t trust anyone, and I wasn’t communicating well with others,” said Wesley, who had 12 documented suicide attempts before he was even 16 years old.

Through such a difficult beginning, Wesley knew that he couldn’t wait for anybody if he wanted to be a successful member of society, and at the early age of eight he started his first business: selling flowers door to door.

During an interview with the podcast Prosperity Place, Wesley revealed that he became an entrepreneur at that point not because he wanted to but because he needed as it was his way to survive.

All the medication he constantly took made him feel “sick” regularly and, when he was 16 years old, he decided to stop taking them. Although he experienced severe withdrawal symptoms, Wesley got better.

Changing his life

One of the things that helped him the most during that time was reading a book about health. Through it, he learned how to keep his liver as healthy as possible, the importance of staying hydrated, and his body chemistry.

From that point on, Wesley has been living medication-free:

“I was tired of a lot of things. So, I made a deal with God to do my part by correcting things in my body,” he said, adding that his last foster mother supported him a lot, too.

It was also at the age of 16 that he decided to change the trajectory of his life by not being a victim or letting the things that happened to him dictate who he was anymore. He chose to “put the victim to bed and wake the hero up instead.”

“I wanted to make dreams come true. And I wanted to help children make a choice to change their lives by taking action and by having an opportunity to become what they want to become, not what they’re told they’re going to be,” Wesley said during a conference.

Helping children

Nowadays, Wesley is an award-winning speaker, author, and business leader who has worked with companies like Costco and Apple.

Apart from that, he co-founded The Human Gathering, which was created to “bring together a select group of individuals who are dedicated to leaving a mark on the world, with access to the resources to do so.”

Wesley has another foundation called A Human Project. Through it, he has worked with federal agencies to rescue children for the past seven years from abusive situations.

At the moment, Wesley lives with his wife Jodie Chapman, who he married on August 27, 2018, and his two children Chloe and Peyton in Northern Idaho with an estimated net worth of $3 million.