Everything Jack Quaid Has Said About His Famous Parents Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan

Jack Quaid has continued to acknowledge how fortunate he is to be the son of parents Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan.

The Boys star noted in July 2024 that he is an “immensely privileged person” and “was able to get representation early on” to jumpstart his acting career.

“I knew the door was open for me in a lot of ways that it’s just not for a lot of actors,” he explained in a Daily Beast interview at the time. “And I’ve just tried to work as hard as I possibly can to prove that I deserve to walk through that door.”

Jack added that his privilege grows when he’s considering a role in a romantic comedy because he is the son of the “undisputed queen of rom-coms.”

“So if that’s in the rom-com space, it’s got to be different enough, and I need to work my ass off,” he told the outlet at the time.

Dennis and Ryan tied the knot in 1991, welcoming Jack in 1992. The twosome separated in 2000 before finalizing their divorce in 2001. Dennis later wed wife Kimberly Buffington and the pair share twins Thomas and Zoe, who were born in 2007. Ryan, meanwhile, adopted daughter Daisy in 2004.

Keep scrolling to learn more about what Jack has said about being the son of Dennis and Ryan:

Acknowledging His Privilege

After Ryan tried to defend her son from the nepo baby title, Jack pointed out that she wasn’t denying his privilege when it comes to his career.

“My first thought was, like, ‘She’s being a mom. She’s being a loving mom,’” he told the Daily Beast in July 2024. “But I don’t think she’s trying to say that I’m not a nepo baby. I think she’s just trying to say that, in her opinion, it undermines my talent. I don’t think it undermines my talent. I know that I work hard, and I know I’ve heard ‘no’ way more than I’ve heard ‘yes.’ But I also know that this industry is insanely hard to break into, and I had an easier time doing that than most. Both things can be true. No matter what I do, people are going to call attention to it.”

He Didn’t Realize His Parents Were Famous Until They Divorced

“It didn’t really hit me, to be honest,” Jack told press at the TCA Winter Press Tour in February 2019, noting that it wasn’t until he saw headlines about his parents’ split that he understood. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK, so everyone knows.’ Then, yeah, I knew [they were famous], but it was just kind of normal to me. They were just my parents.”

He Loved Hanging out on Set With His Parents

During the TCA Winter Press Tour in February 2019, Jack opened up about his memories on set with his mom and dad, specifically hanging out at the craft service truck.

“I would just go in there and eat as much candy as I want,” he said. “That was the one perk, really. I didn’t really pick up anything [on set]. You don’t really know how to do it until you’re on the set yourself.”

They ‘Encouraged’ Him to Pursue an Acting Career

“Most parents if you say, ‘I’m going to try to be an actor,’ they say, ‘What are you talking about, that’s not a viable career,’” Jack told Us Weekly exclusively in April 2018. “But they’re two people that have done it and succeeded at it, so they encouraged me. When I said, ‘I want to do what you guys do,’ they were like, ‘OK. Go for it.’”

Jack also noted that whenever he has a question about acting or the business, he can always count on his parents for support.

“If I’m ever like, ‘What does this mean?’ They’ll calm me down,” he explained to Us. “It was nice because I really had people who had succeeded at what they do to look up to as I was growing up.”

Their Split Was ‘Hard’ on Him

“I acknowledge fully that the way that I grew up was not normal,” Jack explained on the “Allegedly” podcast in March 2016. “But at the same time, despite what my parents do, they’re still a mom and a dad. They’re not like characters at the dinner table. My dad has never been Jerry Lee Lewis at my graduation, nothing has gone down like that. I have perspective on it simply if all the other kids I grew up had a celebrity or actor parents. Then I’d think, ‘This is the world!’”

Jack shared that his parents got divorced when he was 8, which was a “weird age.”

“You’re old enough to know what’s going on, but young enough to be kind of naïve about it,” he recalled. “It’s kind of hard to ignore [the split] If they hadn’t told me about the divorce, I would’ve been like, ‘What’s that?’ as a kid. No, I mean, it’s one of those that it’s a hard deal. But I mean, it’s just as hard as any other divorce, really.”