Chevy Chase looked back on his formative relationship with Blythe Danner in his 2026 CNN documentary, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not.
“Blythe Danner, that was my first real love,” Chase confessed in the Marina Zenovich–directed documentary.
The two dated for a few years while they attended Bard College together in the 1960s. While they went their separate ways after graduating, Chase and Danner took crucial steps in their future careers while performing jazz music together in college.
Chase’s foray into the jazz world led him to abandon his plans to pursue a medical degree, while Danner ultimately discovered that her true passion was acting. Chase also eventually switched from music to acting a few years later and became an original cast member on Saturday Night Live in 1975.
Keep scrolling for a romance rewind on Chase and Danner’s college relationship.
When Were Chevy Chase and Blythe Danner Together?
Chevy Chase and Blythe Danner dated for around two years when they attended Bard College together in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in the 1960s.
Danner was studying acting at the time and graduated in 1965. Chase transferred to Bard in the mid-1960s to study a pre-med curriculum, though he ultimately switched career directions to graduate with a bachelor of arts in English.
In the 2026 documentary I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not, Chevy’s brother Ned looked back on what led the former couple to go their separate ways.
“Blythe and Chevy had different paths post-college,” Ned recalled. “Blythe is a very skilled actress and Blythe’s career took off almost immediately. Meanwhile, Chevy did not take off immediately.”
At the time, Chase was part of a band called The Leather Canary — alternatively known as The Donald Fagen Trio and The Very Bad Jazz Band — at Bard College. His two bandmates, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, went on to form the legendary rock group Steely Dan. (Chase told “WTF With Marc Maron” in 2023 that he was a “good jazz drummer” but split up with Becker and Fagen because he didn’t want to be “a rock ‘n’ roll drummer.”)
Danner was not actually Chase’s only brush with romancing a future celebrity. Prior to his relationship with Danner, Chase took legendary singer-songwriter Carly Simon to a high school dance when they were both teenagers.
What Has Chevy Chase Said About His Blythe Danner Relationship?
Chevy Chase looked back on his formative relationship with Blythe Danner in his 2026 CNN documentary, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not. He described the Broadway legend as his “first real love.”
“She’s a great woman and I’ll always think highly of her,” he told director Marina Zenovich.
What Has Blythe Danner Said About Her Chevy Chase Relationship?
Blythe Danner has only fleetingly referenced her romance with Chevy Chase over the years. She confirmed to AARP in 2018 that Chase had been her “college beau” and that he’d nurtured her passion for performing when they played jazz music together.
“I wanted to be a singer,” she recalled.
Danner briefly studied music as an exchange student in Germany, where she witnessed the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. She soon landed an Off-Broadway role as a German girl before working with her future husband, Bruce Paltrow, on the play Someone’s Comin’ Hungry in 1969.
How Many Times Has Chevy Chase Been Married?
Chevy Chase tied the knot with his first wife, Susan Hewitt, in early 1973. Their relationship only lasted three years — and Chase married his second wife, Jacqueline Carlin, in December 1976.
In more recent years, Chase has said his torrid relationship with Carlin influenced his decision to leave Saturday Night Live midway through its second season in late 1976.
“Look, I would have stayed. There was this girl I wanted to marry who ended up throwing a candelabra at me,” Chase admitted in the 2002 book Live From New York. “[SNL creator Lorne Michaels] knew she was wrong for me, but I thought I was in love.”
Chase and Carlin split in 1980. Two years later, the comedian wed his third wife, Jayni Luke Chase, in Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood. (Chevy and Jayni are still together and share three daughters: Cydney, Caley and Emily.)
Chevy Chase and his wife Jayni in April 2005. Jeff Topping/Getty Images
Despite Chevy’s numerous controversies over the years, Jayni steadfastly defended her husband while promoting his 2026 documentary, I’m Chevy Chase and You’re Not.
“It’s been very hard and hurtful. We’ve been in love and we’ve been through some rough stuff,” she admitted to CNN in January 2026.
She added, “If Chevy says something, and you feel offended, it’s a little more on you than him. He takes risks. You can’t get where he got without being a risk taker. So, dial it back, get a sense of humor. He’s not an a**hole and neither are you.”
How Many Times Has Blythe Danner Been Married?
Director Bruce Paltrow was working as a Broadway stage director and producer when Blythe Danner was cast in the 1969 play, Someone’s Comin’ Hungry. In a 2008 New York Magazine profile, Danner revealed that Paltrow got unexpected encouragement to propose even before they’d started dating.
“I was in a show he produced that lasted two weeks,” she recalled. “And we were walking home one night and went to a fortune-teller on a lark in the Fifth Avenue Hotel. And she told us we were going to get married. We weren’t even dating.”
They wed in late 1969 and soon teamed up again professionally on the play Butterflies Are Free, for which Danner won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 1970.
Gwyneth Paltrow posing with her father Bruce Paltrow and mother Blythe Danner in 2002. LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP via Getty Images
They later had two children, actress Gwyneth Paltrow and director Jake Paltrow. Bruce died from oral cancer in 2002.
“I’ve had a couple of blind dates, but I haven’t had a [serious] date [since Bruce’s death] and I’m not really shopping for another relationship,” Danner told People in 2015. “As June [Squibb] says [in their 2015 film I’ll See You in My Dreams], ‘When you’ve had the best, the heck with the rest,’ and that’s kind of my attitude about it all.”
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