Chuck Norris, the legendary action star who died aged 86 following a sudden medical emergency in Hawaii, fathered a secret daughter whom he did not know existed for nearly 30 years. Dina Norris was born in 1963 as a result of an extramarital affair while Norris was serving in the United States Air Force and married to his childhood sweetheart, Dianne Holechek.
Norris and Holechek married in 1958 and had two sons, Mike in 1962 and Eric in 1965. During his military service in 1963, Norris had a brief relationship with a woman named Johanna, who became pregnant but did not tell him. Dina was raised by her mother and only learned of her father’s identity at age 16, but her mother advised against contacting him because he was married.
In 1991, after reading that Norris had divorced, Dina wrote him a letter. Norris recounted in his 2004 memoir Against All Odds: My Story that he was initially reluctant to meet, but his mother agreed to see Dina first. After that meeting, she urged him to come over immediately. Norris brought his brother for support and described being stunned when he saw Dina, saying he knew instantly she was his daughter without needing DNA tests.
The pair embraced and wept. Norris later wrote that Dina’s family became a ‘blessed part of his life’ and that he considered her a legitimate child in God’s eyes. Norris and Holechek divorced in 1989 after 30 years of marriage. He later married Gena in 1998, with whom he had twins, Dakota and Danilee, in 2001.
