Fans of the Food Network’s The Pioneer Woman are probably familiar with star Ree Drummond’s five kids — if they’re not regularly appearing on the show, the culinary author is writing about them on her website.
Ree first became a mother in 1997 — one year after she tied the knot with husband Ladd Drummond — with the birth of their daughter Alex. In 1999, their daughter Paige was born, followed by sons Bryce, in 2002, and Todd, in 2004.
In 2018, the family grew once more with the addition of a foster son, Jamar. “After a year-and-a-half of living in our house, he is an inextricable part of our wacky family,” Ree wrote for The Pioneer Woman in November 2020.
While it may seem like quite the crew, Ree and Ladd were up for the challenge. “If you can just embrace the chaos and the funny parts, and really just kind of hang on and enjoy the ride, that’s what motherhood is,” the Pioneer Woman Cooks author said in 2010.
Having a bigger family also came in handy during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Drummond brood kept Ree’s show going when stay-at-home orders began, as they all helped her to film. “It’s been an incredible bonding experience for the kids and me,” she said at the time.
It was especially sweet for Ree, who sees her children less as they’ve grown up and embarked upon their own journeys. “These days, with the kids off in different directions, I’m happy with a kiss on the cheek from whatever child is around,” she wrote on her blog in early 2021.
Here’s what to know about Ree Drummond’s children: Alex, Paige, Bryce, Todd and Jamar.
Alex Drummond, 27
The eldest Drummond child, Alex, was born on June 25, 1997. She grew up on the family ranch in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and was roughly 9 years old when her mother began blogging. When Alex was about 14, Ree started her reality series. However, as Alex told PEOPLE in March 2022, her mom’s rise to fame didn’t change her parenting style.
“Sometimes I’m just with her and forget she’s even famous because she’s such a normal mom — so weird, and goofy, and down to earth,” she said. “To me, she is the same mom that she was before all of this craziness started.”
Alex, who was home-schooled, admitted that she once had some insecurities about her unusual adolescence. “I used to be soooooo insecure growing up that I was homeschooled, lived in the country, was somewhat in the public eye, etc.!” she said on Instagram in 2022. “Wish I could go back in time and take back some of the wasted energy and worry that I put into this.”
After finishing her primary studies, Alex moved to Texas in 2015 to attend Texas A&M University, where she was a member of the Tri Delta sorority. It was there that she would meet her future husband, Mauricio Scott — though neither remember the exact moment. “We were in the same group of friends our freshman year of college,” she said on Instagram. “We think that we met at a date party for my sorority, but we’re not 100 percent sure.”
Ree celebrated Alex’s college graduation on May 9, 2019, with a throwback post on Instagram.
Alex worked for a Dallas consulting firm for one year after earning her cap and gown. She later explained on Instagram that she eventually found her way back to the family business, helping her mom to film her show, working remotely on photoshoots for merchandise and marketing the brand.
“It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Alex would work for me after college,” Ree explained to The Pioneer Woman. “But once COVID happened and I had to pivot to doing so many things at home, she was spending so much time helping me with my various projects — and doing such a good job — that it made sense to make it full time.”
In addition to expanding her professional horizons, Alex also expanded her family: She got engaged to Scott in 2020 and tied the knot on May 21, 2021, at the Drummonds’ Oklahoma ranch. “Our honeymoon baby is getting married tonight. (TMI?😂),” Ree wrote. While the nuptials held many special moments for the couple, Alex said her father’s presence was a highlight, as he had been involved in a truck collision just months before.
“[My dad] actually got clearance from his doctor the Thursday before the wedding that he was able to take off his neck brace for some of the special wedding day moments,” she later told The List. “So that was a really special thing, that he was able to be there and not wear this big brace, and he just got to experience it.”
The celebration was also documented in an hour-long special for the Food Network, which aired in June 2021.
Though the couple celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary in 2022, Alex told PEOPLE in early 2022 that she and Scott were in no hurry to become parents, saying, “I think we’re taking our time, not rushing into it, trying to enjoy being married for a little bit.”
In March 2023, Alex opened up about the Drummond siblings’ “really fun dynamic.”
“I feel like I have a unique and fun relationship with each and every one of my siblings, and even though we’re all very different personality-wise, we all just have so much fun together,” she said on Instagram, adding that she’s the closest to her brother Todd. “I feel like I am more myself with my siblings than I am with anyone.”
Three years after their wedding, Alex and Scott announced that they are expecting their first baby in a joint Instagram post shared in June 2024.
Alongside photos of the parents-to-be holding up ultrasound photos, they wrote, “We can’t wait to meet you, little one. 🤍 Baby Scott joining the party this winter! Thank you Lord for this precious gift 😇.”
Paige Drummond, 25
Ree’s second child, Paige Drummond, was born on Aug. 31, 1999, in Oklahoma.
As a kid, Paige was a star on Ree’s Food Network show and could be regularly seen helping around the property when she wasn’t being home-schooled.
In 2014, Ree shared some of her favorite things about Paige in The Pioneer Woman. “I love Paige’s photos,” Ree wrote. “She has an eye. I love Paige’s cupcakes. She has a knack. I also love Paige’s enthusiasm. She has a lot. I also love Paige’s sense of style. She has a flair. I also love Paige’s spirit. She has a good one. I also love Paige’s sweetness. She has my heart.”
Paige was also instrumental in helping Ree cope when Alex went off to college in 2015. “It was sad and difficult as is always the case when the first kid goes to college,” the mother of five told Cowboys & Indians in 2019. “But I still had my second daughter, Paige, at home, so while we experienced a void where Alex had been, the vibe in our household was still the same.”
But 2018 — the year Paige went to college — proved to be trickier. “All bets were off,” Ree told the publication. “There was an immediate difference in the culture of our house. It was suddenly, very noticeably, a man cave, where ranching and football were (and still are!) the primary focus.”
Paige attended the University of Arkansas where she pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma and eventually graduated in 2022.
“4 years went by way too fast :’) This place quickly turned into a home for me and I don’t even have the words to describe how thankful I am for it!” Paige wrote on Instagram.
After college, Paige returned to the Drummond ranch to “work full-time.”
In a Pioneer Woman blog post, Ree wrote, “She’s getting more and more experience in every aspect of ranching, from sorting cattle to weaning calves to fixing fence and water gaps to building salt boxes and a long list of other have-to chores.”
The cookbook author added, “She’s getting banged up, scratched, bruised, and clobbered… and time will tell if she’s in this for the long haul! Ladd is loving having her home. (Psst. I am, too!)”
In August 2024, Paige and her boyfriend, David Andersen, got engaged after dating for a year. “I get to marry the love of my life! How is this real?? I love you, David Andersen! I can’t wait to be your wife!!!” the bride-to-be wrote on Instagram alongside a carousel of engagement photos.
Bryce Drummond, 22
The family welcomed its first baby boy, Bryce, on Sept. 17, 2002. In addition to changing up the boy-to-girl ratio in the Drummond household, he brought a whole lot of humor, as Ree wrote in 2022. “Do you have that one kid in your family that just cracks you up, no matter what they do?” she said. “Bryce is that kid for me. It could just be an expression he makes, or a phrase he utters, or a gesture or a question or a look…but something about Bryce just makes me laugh.”
Like his sisters before him, Bryce grew up in Pawhuska, where his parents provided his early education. “Before he was a quarterback, he was a cowboy,” Ree wrote for Bryce’s 18th birthday.
Unlike his home-schooled siblings, however, Bryce attended Pawhuska High School. He began his football career there, playing as the school’s quarterback. According to his school, as a senior he completed between 233 and 308 passes, leading to 59 touchdowns for his team, which had an undefeated season.
By the time he graduated in December 2020 (one semester early!), he had offers from Purdue, Texas State and Tulsa, though he ultimately committed to the University of North Texas. Ree wrote of her son, “Bryce is really happy, and Ladd and I couldn’t be more excited for Bryce that he’ll be able to continue playing football — and we’re so proud of him for all the hard work that got him there. Excuse me while I go cry for four hundred years.”
In July 2020, Bryce revealed a few of his athletic aspirations, telling The Oklahoman, “I mean, I want to be the leading passer in Oklahoma. Top, leading passer in America.”
He hugged his brothers goodbye before heading off to school in January 2021. “Bryce is headed to college today,” Ree wrote in an Instagram Story. “I’ll be OK in 2085.”
By September 2022, both the reality star and her son seemed to have adjusted to his new life, with the mother visiting him at college for his first game of the season with her daughter Paige, aka “Bryce’s biggest fans.”
In April 2023, Ree revealed on Instagram that Bryce transferred to Oklahoma State University — a college much closer to his family’s home in Pawhuska.
“spring uniform is lookin a little different this time around,” Bryce wrote in a separate Instagram post. To which Ree replied: “Go Pokes!! 🙌 So proud of you, son!!”
Two months later, the Food Network star revealed in an Instagram Reel that she visited Bryce at college and took him shopping for apartment essentials. Her video featured the mother-son duo walking around Walmart. At one point, Bryce selects some items from Ree’s line of dishes and kitchen tools.
“Yesterday Bryce (and his mullet) asked me if I had time to drive over to his college town to have dinner with him…oh, and take him shopping for a few apartment essentials,” she captioned the post. “Of course my answer was yes,” she said before joking, “as long as he didn’t mind visiting a few certain aisles…”
Jamar Goff, 21
Jamar Goff was born on Oct. 7, 2002, and joined the Drummond family in 2018, when Ree and Ladd became his foster parents. Though Ree kept the details of her fifth child under wraps for some time, she opened up about her relationship with Jamar in her book, Frontier Follies.
“Fostering a kid was never something Ladd and I pursued or felt called to do, but Jamar’s circumstances presented themselves to us in a way we couldn’t ignore,” she wrote. “Long story short, all six foot five inches of him showed up at our house one afternoon, bag in hand, ready to move in.”
Jamar met Ladd and the Drummond sons, Bryce and Todd, through football, and later encountered Ree for the first time while visiting the family home. Ree became close with the teenager after Jamar got in an accident on one of their all-terrain vehicles.
“He made too sharp a turn and wound up tipping over the ATV and badly injuring his foot. A skin graft (yikes) and a tendon repair surgery (double yikes) later, he had to stay in bed for more than six weeks to give his foot time to heal,” she wrote.
Distraught by his injury, Ree provided comfort with her food. “I overcompensated by serving him ‘generous’ (oversize) portions of home-cooked food every morning, noon and night, delivering it to him on a tray with all the condiments and beverages he could possibly need,” she continued.
Ree also provided plenty of love. “Jamar’s accident, while terrible, did wind up having an unexpected benefit for our newly modified family: It forced all of us to get pretty darn close, and fast,” she wrote, adding that she changed his foot dressings and gave him medicine while her husband drove him to his doctor’s appointments. Her sons, meanwhile, helped him get around. “We were all up in Jamar’s business, and if there’d been any hesitation on any of our parts to interact and get comfortable with one another, his injury quickly knocked down those walls and gave us all a reason to come together. Jamar had to learn to trust us,” she explained.
The young athlete eventually returned to football, and in February 2021, Ree announced that Jamar had signed to play for the University of Central Oklahoma Broncos. “Big big day!!” she wrote on Instagram. “I’m so proud of him and so grateful for his friends, coaches, and community for supporting him in countless ways. And I’m grateful for Jamar himself—his hard work, his commitment, and his presence in our family.”
In 2021, Jamar went to college, though he returned with a special present for Ree in March 2022: his laundry. “If I had a Tide pod for every grain of sand on all the beaches of the world, I still would not have enough Tide pods to finish all of Jamar’s laundry over the next week,” she joked on social media. “It’s a good thing he’s so cute.”
Todd Drummond, 20
On June 4, 2004, the couple welcomed their youngest son, Todd Drummond.
Todd was just 7 years old when his mother’s show first aired on the Food Network, so the little boy grew up on-screen. Though he was home-schooled for much of his upbringing, he eventually enrolled at Pawhuska High School.
In 2021, when Jamar went off to college, he was the only remaining Drummond child living at home. “We are almost empty-nesting!” Ree told PEOPLE.
In 2021, Todd followed in Bryce’s footsteps, becoming a starting quarterback for his school’s football team. “He got in there and worked…and worked…and worked…and wound up throwing for 3,600+ yards and 50 touchdowns,” Ree wrote on Instagram. “I’m not sharing that to brag, but instead to illustrate the heart this kid has for football, and the dedication he’s shown every single day (and especially Friday nights) this fall. I couldn’t be prouder of my youngest kid.”
Ree also celebrated Todd’s accomplishments by dedicating the fall 2022 issue of The Pioneer Woman magazine to her youngest son and appearing alongside him on the cover. “I couldn’t be prouder of the dedication Todd has shown,” Ree said.
In June 2022, Todd revealed his college plans, sharing that he would play for the University of South Dakota Coyotes in fall 2023.
By December 2022, Ree and Ladd started preparing “empty nest” activities before Todd’s departure for college in January. “Ladd and I are actively trying to establish new activities together as the empty nest approaches,” she captioned a photo of her and her husband outside. “So we take evening walks now!”
In January 2023, Ree dropped her youngest son off at college. She shared a selfie from the car on her Instagram Story, in which Todd could be seen in the back seat wearing a red University of South Dakota shirt. “Made it to SD yesterday,” she wrote over the picture. “GO YOTES! (and go Todd).”
Source: People
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