Suzanne Chase is a name that often appears in searches about the early personal life of comedian and actor Chevy Chase. She is identified in recent celebrity coverage as Suzanne Chase, also known as Susan Hewitt, and is known for being Chevy Chase’s first wife. The couple married in New York City in February 1973 and divorced in February 1976, during the period when Chase was beginning his rise in American comedy.
Unlike her famous former husband, Suzanne Chase did not build a public career in entertainment. As a result, there is relatively little dependable information about her personal background, professional life, or activities after the marriage ended. That makes the documented timeline of her relationship with Chevy Chase the clearest part of her public biography.
Who Is Suzanne Chase?
Suzanne Chase is primarily known through her connection to Chevy Chase, the American comedian, actor, writer, and former Saturday Night Live performer. Sources that document Chase’s marriages identify his first wife as Susan Hewitt, while PEOPLE has referred to her as Suzanne Chase, also noting the name Susan Hewitt.
This difference in naming is worth keeping in mind when researching Suzanne Chase online. Search results can lead readers to information under either name, but the underlying relationship being described is the same: she was married to Chevy Chase before his later marriages to Jacqueline Carlin and Jayni Luke.
There is no substantial public record showing that Suzanne Chase pursued the kind of entertainment career associated with her former husband. Her place in celebrity history instead comes from being connected to Chase at an important early stage of his life.
Early Life and Background
Reliable mainstream sources provide very little information about Suzanne Chase’s childhood, education, parents, siblings, or early professional life.
Some websites have published specific claims about her birth year and personal background, but those details are not sufficiently supported by the stronger sources available for this biography. For that reason, they are not presented here as established facts.
The lack of detailed biographical material does not mean that every claim circulating online is necessarily false. It simply means there is not enough dependable documentation to responsibly turn those claims into facts. For a person who has largely remained outside the public entertainment industry, that distinction is particularly important.
What can be established with considerably greater confidence is her place in Chevy Chase’s marital history.
Marriage to Chevy Chase
Suzanne Chase and Chevy Chase married in New York City on February 23, 1973. At the time, Chase was still in the early stages of the career that would eventually make him one of America’s most recognizable comedy performers. IMDb’s biographical record lists Susan Hewitt as Chase’s spouse from February 23, 1973, until February 1, 1976.
Their marriage lasted nearly three years. The relationship ended in divorce on February 1, 1976. Those dates are consistently reported in biographical records concerning Chevy Chase’s personal life.
The timing is significant because Chevy Chase’s career was changing rapidly during this period. He became part of the original cast of Saturday Night Live in 1975 and quickly attracted national attention through his comedy and his role on the show’s early editions of “Weekend Update.” His professional breakthrough therefore overlapped with the final part of his marriage to Suzanne.
There is, however, little reliable first-person material from Suzanne herself explaining the relationship or the reasons for their divorce. It would therefore be inappropriate to speculate about the private circumstances surrounding their separation.
What Happened After the Divorce?
After the 1976 divorce, Chevy Chase’s personal life continued to attract public attention, while Suzanne Chase largely disappeared from mainstream celebrity coverage.
Chase married Jacqueline Carlin later in 1976, and that marriage ended in 1980. He subsequently married Jayni Luke in 1982. IMDb records all three marriages in its biographical information, listing Susan Hewitt as his first wife.
Jayni later became the long-term partner associated with Chase in the public eye. The couple have three daughters, Cydney, Caley, and Emily.
By contrast, dependable sources do not provide a comparable account of Suzanne Chase’s later relationships, career, residence, or day-to-day life. Rather than repeating unsupported internet claims, it is more accurate to acknowledge that the public record becomes extremely thin after her divorce from Chase.
Was Suzanne Chase Chevy Chase’s First Wife?
Yes. Suzanne Chase is described in recent coverage as Chevy Chase’s first wife, while established biographical databases identify his first wife as Susan Hewitt.
The marriage began on February 23, 1973, and ended with divorce on February 1, 1976. Chase’s next marriage was to Jacqueline Carlin, followed by his marriage to Jayni Luke in 1982.
This is the main reason people searching for “Chevy Chase’s ex-wife” encounter the name Suzanne Chase. Her connection to Chase is documented, even though information about her independent life is scarce.
Did Suzanne Chase Have Children With Chevy Chase?
There is no reliable evidence in the major biographical sources reviewed for this article that Suzanne Chase and Chevy Chase had children together.
IMDb lists Chase’s children in connection with his later family life and identifies Susan Hewitt separately as his first spouse. PEOPLE likewise documents Chase’s three daughters with his third wife, Jayni Chase.
Because information about Suzanne’s private life is limited, it is better not to attach additional family claims to her without strong supporting documentation.
Why People Search for Suzanne Chase
Interest in Suzanne Chase is closely connected to curiosity about Chevy Chase’s early life and marriages.
Readers commonly encounter her name while researching questions such as who Chevy Chase’s first wife was, when he married her, how long the marriage lasted, and what happened before he married Jacqueline Carlin and later Jayni Luke.
The search is also complicated by the difference between the names Suzanne Chase and Susan Hewitt. Recent celebrity coverage uses Suzanne Chase, while established biographical records use Susan Hewitt.
For that reason, readers searching for “Suzanne Chase biography” may actually be looking for information about the woman recorded elsewhere as Susan Hewitt.
Privacy, Accuracy, and Public Information
Suzanne Chase’s story illustrates an important difference between being connected to a celebrity and being a public figure in one’s own right.
Chevy Chase has spent decades in the entertainment industry, giving journalists and biographers extensive material about his career and public life. Suzanne Chase does not have the same volume of documented public information. Her appearance in celebrity searches largely comes from a historical marriage rather than from an independently documented entertainment career.
That distinction matters when evaluating online biographies. Claims about a person’s age, childhood, parents, career, current location, finances, relationships, or life after divorce should not automatically be treated as factual simply because they appear on several websites. Repeated claims can originate from the same unverified source.
For Suzanne Chase, the strongest documented facts are therefore the ones directly connected to Chevy Chase’s marital history: her identification as Susan Hewitt in established biographical records, the February 1973 marriage, and the February 1976 divorce.
Conclusion
Suzanne Chase remains a relatively obscure figure in comparison with her former husband, but her place in Chevy Chase’s personal history is clear. She was his first wife, marrying him in New York City in 1973 before their marriage ended in divorce in 1976. Reliable sources identify her as Susan Hewitt, while more recent celebrity coverage uses Suzanne Chase as the name associated with that marriage.
Beyond those documented facts, the public record offers little dependable information about her life. A responsible biography therefore does not need to manufacture details to make the story longer. In Suzanne Chase’s case, the most useful account is one that explains her connection to Chevy Chase clearly while respecting the boundaries of what can actually be established.