Dennis Quaid’s 3 Kids: All About Jack, Thomas and Zoe

Dennis Quaid may be well known as an on-screen dad in The Parent Trap, but he’s also a father of three in real life.

The actor welcomed his first child, son Jack, 32, with his second wife, Meg Ryan, in 1992. More than a decade later, he became a dad again with the birth of his twins, Thomas and Zoe, 17, in 2007, whom he shares with his third wife Kimberly Buffington.

The father of three told PEOPLE in March 2018 that he now defines happiness based on how his children are doing. As his kids have gotten older, the actor has opened up about what he loves most about fatherhood, revealing that his “favorite time” is when he is taking his two youngest to school in the morning.

“During breakfast, getting them up, you really get to know them,” Quaid said. “They’re as fresh as they’re going to get. It’s not the witching hour at night when it’s time to go to bed and all the excuses come out. A lot of bonding goes on in the morning, talking about life.”

As for his eldest, Jack has followed in his famous parents’ footsteps and is now an actor himself, with roles in hit franchises like The Hunger Games and Scream as well as a starring role on Amazon’s The Boys.

“When he said he was ready to act, I told him I’d help him out, and of course he’s Meg Ryan’s son, but he said, ‘No, I want to do it myself,’ ” Quaid said of Jack. He joked, “Now I’m like, ‘Hey, how about a little help?’ I’m not too proud to ask.”

For The Rookie actor, fatherhood has completely changed his perspective on life.

“It took my focus off myself, which is always good for an actor because actors are so self-involved,” he explained to PEOPLE. “And I’ve learned more patience. Hopefully!”

In July 2023, Quaid spoke with PEOPLE about being a parent, calling himself a “dorky dad.”

“I love being a dad. I really do. I think I’m a good dad,” he said. “It turned out so far so good. Jack really turned out well. I’m really proud of him, and Thomas and Zoe too.”

Keep reading to learn more about Dennis Quaid’s three children.

Jack Quaid, 32

Jack Henry Quaid was born on April 24, 1992, in Los Angeles, to Quaid and Ryan. The couple had been married for a year by the time they welcomed their first child together. However, they separated in 2000 before finalizing their divorce in 2001.

Looking back at that time, Jack — who was 8 when his parents split — said it was “one of those weird ages for your parents to get divorced” on the Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss podcast. He explained, “You’re old enough to know what’s going on, but young enough to be kind of naïve about it. It’s a whole deal.”

While on the podcast, he reflected on his childhood and acknowledged that the way he grew up was “not normal.”

He added, “But at the same time, it was normal in the sense that despite what my parents do, they are still a mom and a dad. It’s not like they are their characters at the dinner table or anything like that.”

Growing up, it was evident to Quaid that his son would become an actor. Speaking to Kelly Clarkson on The Kelly Clarkson Show in October 2020, the actor said that Jack expressed an interest in acting at “a very, very, very young age.”

“He had a video camera in his hand when he was like 4 years old, making little videos and stuff,” Quaid said. “It was just a very natural thing that he did, it wasn’t something we pushed him towards. Ever since he was a kid, it was kinda obvious that he was gonna do that.”

Jack attended high school at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, where he was president of the Bad Movie Club, as he shared in an April 2022 video for the YouTube channel Red Letter Media. After graduating, he went on to study at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts for three years. While attending NYU, he studied at the Experimental Theatre Wing of Tisch and was also a member of the sketch comedy group Hammerkatz.

As Jack was getting ready to enter the industry, Quaid said he offered to set his son up with his agent, but the young actor wanted to do things on his own. Jack ultimately found his own representation and booked a role in The Hunger Games before going on to star in Vinyl and The Boys.

Above all, Quaid said he is proud of who his son has grown up to be, telling Clarkson, “Even more than an actor, he’s really turned out to be a really fine man.”

Jack told PEOPLE in January 2022 that growing up he spent a lot of time on set with his parents. He recalled one of his favorite sets to spend time on, which was his dad’s 2002 film The Rookie.

“I love Austin, Texas — that’s where they shot it and I’ve gone back since so many times. I miss it, I haven’t really gotten to go during the whole pandemic, so I’d love to go again,” he explained.

Despite his two famous parents, the Scream actor said he ultimately didn’t get much advice from his parents on acting.

“I’ve never asked them, ‘How should I perform this scene?’ ” he said.

However, Quaid and Ryan are still very supportive of their son. Jack said he felt “lucky” that his parents understood his desire to be an actor.

“I didn’t grow up in a house that didn’t quite understand what that meant or a house that would tell me, ‘Oh that probably isn’t the wisest choice you should have a backup plan,’ ” he said. “Like, I had the privilege and I was lucky to have people that understood what that meant and supported me going into it.”

Jack is the big brother to his father’s twins, Thomas and Zoe, as well as his mother’s daughter Daisy. During a February 2008 interview with USA Today, Quaid said that Jack had already become “very bonded” to Ryan’s younger child.

“It’s fantastic for Jack having a little brother and sisters now,” Quaid said. “He really wanted to have a little brother, and I really wanted to have a little girl, so we all got what we wanted.”

In July 2023, Jack talked about growing up on film sets during an interview with PEOPLE.

“I grew up with friends who also had parents in the industry, so it didn’t really feel different,” he explained. “But then you grow up, and you realize that’s a pretty unique thing, that not one but two of your parents are actors. You don’t realize that things are slightly abnormal until later.”

Quaid talked about how proud he is of Jack in an interview with ET in August 2024, joking that, given his son’s success, he should “reverse nepo” his dad and help him out a bit.

“I’m really so proud of him and he’s making great choices. He’s such a great person. Which is the most important thing of all. And that’s number one, and everything comes out of that,” Quaid said.

Thomas Boone Quaid and Zoe Grace Quaid, 17

Quaid welcomed his two youngest children with his third wife, Buffington, via gestational carrier on Nov. 8, 2007, in Santa Monica. Thomas Boone Quaid was born first at 8:26 a.m., weighing 6 lbs. 12 oz. Zoe Grace Quaid arrived two minutes later and weighed 5 lbs. 9 oz.

Just weeks after the twins were born, they were hospitalized at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in L.A. due to staph infections. While at the hospital, the twins were accidentally given 1,000 times the recommended dose of the blood thinner Heparin, placing them in immediate jeopardy. The parents did not learn about the overdose until 6:30 a.m. the following morning, with Buffington telling the Los Angeles Times that by the time they had gotten to the hospital, both babies “were in incubators with cords attached to them.”

By early December 2007, the twins had made a full recovery and were discharged from the hospital. Following the medical mishap, Quaid went on to start The Quaid Foundation to raise awareness about medical mistakes.

In the months that followed the near-fatal overdose, the actor told PEOPLE in March 2008 that he had a “greater appreciation of life in general.”

“It’s the greatest thing to hold those kids and see their faces because we had a happy ending,” he said. “It’s great to be a normal dad with the normal problems of not having enough hands for both of them.”

He added, “If they hadn’t made it, it really would have changed my life. But they did survive. So it changed my attitude.”

At a February 2008 press event for his film Vantage Point, Quaid opened up about becoming a dad again, admitting that fatherhood was “a lot easier” the second time around.

The dad of three explained, “It’s easier in the sense that when the first one comes along you worry about everything. The second ones come along, ‘Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah that’s fine, seen that, done that.'”

“You’re a little more relaxed about it. But with two, you need another arm,” he added.

Quaid also joked about how often people struggled to tell his then-3-month-old twins apart.

“One’s wearing blue, the other one’s wearing pink,” he said, “but you’d still be surprised [with] people, because they don’t want to make a mistake, they go. ‘Oh, that’s the … a girl isn’t it?’ ”

The actor remains fairly private about his family life, especially when it comes to his two youngest children, and he rarely speaks about them publicly.

However, eight years after the twins’ near-fatal overdose, Quaid shared an update on how they were doing during a December 2015 appearance on the Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss podcast.

“They’re perfectly normal as could be now,” he said. “They’re like head of their class.”

He continued, “But you know, it’s something that happens to you, you feel strongly about and you step up for it. It was really the kids that went through it and they were the ones that did it.”

“It was the most frightening time of our lives. But they came through it,” he concluded.