Dog The Bounty Hunter Shoots Down Death Rumors, Says He's 'Broke' Now

dog the bounty hunter duane chapman dog's most wanted screenshot wgn america

Duane "Dog the Bounty Hunter" Chapman has had a rough year thanks to the tragic death of Beth Chapman in June 2019 and a host of complications that followed, not the least of which was the premiere of a new show featuring his late wife and her struggles with cancer and now the fact that he is reportedly "broke." Recently, however, some bad news about Chapman began to circulate that was fortunately not true! Despite reports that he died, he took to social media to set the record straight.

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Reports of Duane Chapman's death have been greatly exaggerated! Dog himself took to Instagram to screenshot the headline of the story reporting that he committed suicide in 2019 to inform "HATERS" that he is still very much alive. Of course, there were giveaways that Chapman didn't die last year. The bounty hunter and reality TV star has been active on both Instagram and Twitter in 2020 so far, and it's hard to believe nobody at WGN America or Dog's Most Wanted would have posted an update and tribute.

That's not to say that Duane Chapman has had an easy time financially recently, as he admitted in January. The bounty hunter has hit some hard times, with very serious health issues following the death of his wife. He was hospitalized in September 2019 after what initially seemed like a heart attack, although it later proved to be something else.

Duane Chapman opened up about the health scare, but sharing his story wasn't the end of his health issues. He was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism, which is very serious but he chose not to tell his kids about what was going on with him. Between his hospital bills, 12 children, 11 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, Chapman apparently needs money. He put it simply in an interview with The New York Times:

I’m broke.

There is hope for Duane Chapman's finances, as he revealed that he just needs to catch a particular criminal who's on the run. He took the job to hunt somebody accused of dealing drugs in Hawaii, who has since run to California. If Chapman doesn't catch this person, he'll have to pay a whopping $1.5 million and the bank will reportedly seize his Colorado home. If he does make the catch, the money should be very helpful.

If and when Dog's Most Wanted returns to WGN America for a second season, perhaps fans will get a look at Duane Chapman's chase and/or the aftermath. So far, at least fans can take heart in his confirmation that reports of his death were definitely off! For now, you can always watch select episodes of A&E's Dog the Bounty Hunter streaming on Hulu as well as plenty of other options with our 2020 winter and spring premiere schedule.

Laura Hurley
Senior Content Producer

Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).