Meg Ryan welcomed her son, Jack, with ex-husband Dennis Quaid in 1992 and adopted her daughter, Daisy True, in 2006
Meg Ryan may be known as the ‘90s rom-com queen, but she is also the proud mom of two children, son Jack Quaid and daughter Daisy True Ryan.
The What Happens Later actress and actor Dennis Quaid welcomed Jack in 1992. Ryan and Quaid were married for 10 years before their divorce was finalized in 2001. Ryan later adopted her daughter, Daisy, who was born in 2004, from China in 2006.
The following year, she shared with Redbook how it felt to grow her family.
"I just can't imagine what it was like before she came,” she said of Daisy. "Life is good, it's so good with her in it. She and Jack get along great. All of us fit together beautifully."
Jack followed his parents into acting. Ryan directed her son in 2015’s Ithaca and credited her children for helping her venture into the world behind the camera.
“[Motherhood has changed me] fundamentally,” she told PEOPLE in October 2016. “I have two kids ... and I think that part of my life served my [ability] to direct the best.”
Related: Meg Ryan's Life and Career in Photos
In October 2023, during an interview with PEOPLE, Ryan gushed about her adult children.
"I have two of the greatest kids," she said. "They are hilarious, they're smart, they are kind, they're interested in other people, they're curious about the world. I feel like both of them make the world a little better, and I just feel so proud of them."
Here's everything to know about Meg Ryan’s two children, Jack Quaid and Daisy True Ryan.
Jack Quaid, 31
Jack Henry Quaid was born in Los Angeles on April 24, 1992. His parents, Ryan and Quaid, had been married for a year at the time of his birth, but they split in 2000. Their divorce was finalized the following year when Jack was 9.
As a child, Jack often tagged along with them to movie sets, and he recalled spending time in Austin, Texas, while his dad was filming the 2002 movie The Rookie.
"I would go on location with my parents a lot," Jack told PEOPLE in January 2022. "I wasn't taking any pointers or anything. A kid can't handle how slow a set moves, so I would watch a couple of takes and then go to the craft service truck and try to steal all the candy I could!"
Though the Solos star knew what his parents did for a living and how it affected his upbringing, he never felt the need “to escape from” their careers.
“I acknowledge fully the way that I grew up was not normal,” he said on the Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss podcast in March 2016. “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."
Jack told Women's Wear Daily in March 2017 that he “always had the performing bug" and “would do magic shows for the family growing up," eventually nabbing his first role in a middle school production of Midsummer Night's Dream.
Jack went to high school at Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, and was president of the Bad Movie Club before attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. During his three years at NYU (where his mom was enrolled when she was an undergrad student), Jack studied at the Experimental Theatre Wing of Tisch and was a member of the sketch comedy group Hammerkatz.
He continued honing his comedic chops after college, co-founding the four-person Sasquatch Sketch Comedy team in 2013.
Dennis' agent even wanted to represent Jack, but the budding actor chose to go into the industry on his own. “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 told PEOPLE in March 2018.
Getting his own agent paid off — Jack made his acting debut in 2012's The Hunger Games. Three years later, he appeared in his mom's directorial debut, Ithaca.
“Nobody knows you better than your mom, so it was absolutely perfect,” Jack told WWD of being directed by his mother. “Our shorthand is incredible. I tried to somehow keep it professional.”
Jack appeared on HBO's period drama Vinyl (2016) and in the comedy heist movie Logan Lucky (2017) before landing his breakout role as Hughie Campbell on Prime Video's The Boys (2019-present). His recent roles include the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks and the 2020 movie Scream. Next, he’s set to star in the sci-fi thriller Companion and the action comedy film Heads of State.
Jack told PEOPLE in 2022 that his parents don't give him acting advice but they are very supportive of his career.
"It's lucky that I got to grow up saying, 'Hey, I want to be an actor,’ and they understood that ... and supported me going into it," he said.
As for whether he is more like one of his famous parents than the other, Ryan told Redbook that Jack is “as different from me as Daisy is” and "different from his dad.”
"He’s his own guy, and that’s how kids come, no matter how you get them,” she said. “It’s just as much of a lottery with your own biological children as it is with an adopted child half the world away."
Jack keeps his romantic life relatively private. He was last linked to his The Boys costar Claudia Doumit. The two were seen holding hands in Sydney in June 2022, according to the Daily Mail. Before Doumit, he dated actress Lizzy McGroder and director Tayler Vee Robinson.
In addition to his younger sister, Daisy, Jack also has two step-siblings, twins Thomas and Zoe, from his father's third marriage to wife Kimberly Buffington, which ended in 2016. (Quaid and his fourth wife, Laura Savoie, eloped in 2020.)
Daisy True Ryan, 18
Daisy True Ryan was born in China in 2004, and Ryan adopted her in early 2006.
The When Harry Met Sally star told the Los Angeles Times in September 2008 that she “always thought” she would adopt and described the process as “a deliberate act."
“[Adoption] taught me a lot about any expectations you have in life. Just toss them away. Throw them out,” Ryan told the publication.
Daisy was originally named Charlotte True, but Ryan explained on The Late Show with David Letterman that the moniker didn't quite suit her. "It took me a while to get to know her," she said. "[Daisy]’s a really ridiculously happy person, and it was the happiest name I could think of."
When Daisy was 3, Ryan told Access Hollywood that raising her toddler was “a great experience.”
“She’s a great brain too, that kid. And she is in charge, very in charge,” she said.
The actress raised Daisy as a single mom, which she noted had ups and downs. During an In Goop Health event in Los Angeles in June 2018, Ryan said, per E! News, "I know I'm really her reference, for better and worse, and I'm glad she has other influences. One thing that is nice is you don't get overruled."
Following older brother Jack's high school graduation, Daisy and Ryan moved from Los Angeles to New York City, where Daisy spent her formative years.
In 2019, Ryan told The New York Times that the mother-daughter duo enjoy classic movie marathons. "I’m showing my daughter all kinds of romantic comedies,” she said. “We did a Frank Capra thing over Christmas: It Happened One Night and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Later that year, Ryan and Daisy attended a Schiaparelli runway show together during Paris Fashion Week.
Daisy currently attends Smith College in Massachusetts.
"I visit probably more than I should," Ryan admitted to PEOPLE in October 2023.
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