Don Knotts&x27; 3 Wives: All About "The Andy Griffith Show" Star&x27;s Marriages Jacqueline WeissThu, March 12, 2026 at 10:45 AM UTC 0 Don Knotts with his wife on his porch on March 2, 1961 ; Don Knotts and wife during 27th Annual Vision Awards at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly HillsCredit: CBS Photo Archive/Getty; Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty The Andy Griffith Show actor Don Knotts was married three times Knotts welcomed two children with his first wife, Kathryn Metz He was married to Frances Yarborough at the time of his death The Andy Griffith Show star Don Knotts was married...
Don Knotts' 3 Wives: All About "The Andy Griffith Show" Star's Marriages
Jacqueline WeissThu, March 12, 2026 at 10:45 AM UTC
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Don Knotts with his wife on his porch on March 2, 1961 ; Don Knotts and wife during 27th Annual Vision Awards at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly HillsCredit: CBS Photo Archive/Getty; Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty -
The Andy Griffith Show actor Don Knotts was married three times
Knotts welcomed two children with his first wife, Kathryn Metz
He was married to Frances Yarborough at the time of his death
The Andy Griffith Show star Don Knotts was married three times.
Although the actor was well known for his work in sitcoms and comedic films throughout his career, he kept his off-screen life and marriages much more private.
He was married to his first wife, Kathryn Metz, from 1947 until 1964. During their marriage, they welcomed two children together, daughter Karen Knotts and son Thomas Knotts, whom the actor raised on his own after their divorce.
"Dad was kind of wild," his daughter Karen told PEOPLE in 2006. "He was really quite a ladies' man, especially between marriages."
Knotts went on to marry Loralee Czuchna from 1974 until they split in 1983. In 2002, he married a third time to Frances Yarborough, to whom he was married until his death.
Knotts died on Feb. 24, 2006, at 81 years old due to complications from lung cancer.
So, who are Don Knotts' wives? Here's everything to know about the actor's three marriages.
Kathryn Metz
American television actor Don Knotts (second left) sits on a couch with his family at home, March 2, 1961. From left, son Tom, Knotts, wife Kay, and daughter KarenCredit: CBS Photo Archive/Getty
During his senior year of college at West Virginia University in Morgantown, W. Va., Knotts married his classmate Kathryn Elaine Metz on Dec. 27, 1947, per Morgantown magazine.
Metz's father, Carl Metz, who was a minister at the First Baptist Church in Wheeling, W. Va., married the couple in the church.
Just over six years later, they welcomed their daughter Karen on April 1, 1954. Their son, Thomas, arrived three years later in February 1957.
Karen told the Murfreesboro Post in April 2011 that she had a "normal" childhood, although "it was a little surreal" due to her father's fame.
"We lived in Glendale, which was almost Mayberry-like in smallness. It was a tight-knit community, like a small Midwest town in the middle of Los Angeles," she shared. "Because my dad had such visibility, everybody knew where he lived, and fans would come to ask for autographs."
After Metz and Knotts divorced in 1964, the actor raised Karen and Thomas on his own. Despite being a working actor, Karen has made it clear that her father was still an active parent for her and Thomas.
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"He was gone a lot, but he was always checking in on us. And no matter how long it took, he would always come home … And he always made time for us when he wasn't working," she told Fox News in November 2021.
She added, "I never felt neglected at all. Neither did my brother. And we did get to go on the set too, which was great."
Although Knotts was best known for his Emmy-winning role as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, Karen says that in real life, that is not who her father was.
"He was not Barney Fife. That was a great, funny character. But my father was witty and funny all on his own. He was a good father. He wasn't a tough father at all, but he had high standards for us," she shared.
Loralee Czuchna
Actor Don Knotts with his wife Loralee Czuchna, attending the Los Angeles Television Awards, 1975.Credit: Frank Edwards/Archive Photos/Getty
Knotts' second wife was Loralee Czuchna, to whom he was married from 1974 to 1983. There is not much public information about Czuchna or her marriage to Knotts, including how or when the couple met.
On Oct. 14, 2007, she married Dr. Howard Murad, founder of Murad Skincare, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. According to their marriage announcement, she is a graduate of the University of Southern California.
She met Murad because they lived in the "same condo complex in Marina del Rey," Murad told the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2011. On his website, he shared that his wife is "an accomplished dancer" and that they love to travel together.
Frances Yarborough
Don Knotts and wife during 27th Annual Vision Awards at Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly HillsCredit: Jim Smeal/Ron Galella Collection via Getty
In 2002, Knotts married his third wife, actress Frances Yarborough. The couple were married until Knotts' death in 2006.
Like Czuchna, there is not much information about Yarborough or her relationship with Knotts.
Karen briefly mentioned Yarborough in a 2025 interview with Woman's World, sharing a memory from the end of her father's life.
"Here's the thing about my dad. He had this funniness that was just completely, insanely natural," she shared. "Even when he was dying, he was making us laugh in hysterics. My stepmother and I got into fits of laughter, and I had to run out of the room."
In a statement after her husband's death, Yarborough said, "He saw poignancy in people's pride and pain, and he turned it into something endearing and hilarious."
on People
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Source: Entertainment
Published: March 12, 2026 at 07:00AM on Source: PRIME TIME
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