Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid welcomed son Jack in 1992, a year into their marriage.
The couple split when Jack was eight, with their divorce finalized in 2001.
Jack has followed his mother into the entertainment world and built a successful acting career of his own.
Meg Ryan’s eldest child, Jack Quaid, was born in Los Angeles in April 1992, arriving about a year after she married actor Dennis Quaid. The marriage came to an end when Jack was eight, with the couple separating in 2000 and officially divorcing in 2001.
Looking back on that period in a 2016 podcast appearance, Jack described his parents’ split as happening at an odd age — old enough to grasp what was going on, but still too young to fully make sense of it. He’s also spoken candidly about growing up with two famous parents, calling his childhood unconventional in some ways, while also noting that at home, his mother and father were simply mom and dad rather than the characters they played on screen.
Despite the divorce, Ryan and Quaid have both remained present in Jack’s life, and he’s credited them with supporting his choice to become an actor without pushing him toward it. His father has recalled that Jack’s interest in filmmaking emerged naturally in early childhood, well before either parent encouraged it.
Jack went on to attend Crossroads School in Santa Monica before studying for three years at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he trained with the Experimental Theatre Wing and performed with the sketch comedy group Hammerkatz. Rather than lean on his parents’ industry connections, he opted to find his own representation and broke into film with a role in The Hunger Games, later earning wider recognition for his work in Vinyl and The Boys.
Ryan has kept much of her relationship with Jack out of the public eye, with the two rarely photographed together, making the handful of public appearances they’ve shared together over the years especially notable to fans. Jack is also the older half-brother to Daisy, Ryan’s daughter, as well as to twins Thomas and Zoe, whom his father shares with third wife Kimberly Buffington.
Jack has spoken warmly about his mother’s influence and has described feeling fortunate that both his parents respected his independent path into acting rather than steering him toward it. In turn, Dennis Quaid has said repeatedly that what makes him proudest isn’t his son’s career, but the person Jack has grown into — a sentiment that appears to echo how Ryan feels about her son as well.
In April 2026, Jack married his The Boys co-star Claudia Doumit in an intimate ceremony held in Australia, a milestone that both of his parents are believed to have celebrated alongside him.
