Claims Chris Hansen cheated on his wife resurface after Primetime, but he addressed them

Chris Hansen is back in the spotlight thanks to Primetime, the new A24 film inspired by his controversial To Catch a Predator series, but people have been curious to know if he really did cheat on his wife and if the scandal actually ended his NBC career.

In 2011, the married Dateline NBC correspondent was accused of having an affair with Florida TV reporter Kristyn Caddell. The allegations became a major story, with photographs of them together being published.

Caddell later publicly described their relationship as a romance and said Hansen had led her to believe his marriage was already coming to an end.

Hansen, however, has denied that characterisation. He has said the situation was blown out of proportion and that Caddell was not responsible for the eventual end of his marriage.

So, what actually happened, did the scandal affect his NBC career, and where is Hansen now?

Did Chris Hansen cheat on his wife?

The allegations first became public in 2011, when the National Enquirer published photographs of Hansen having dinner with Caddell at a restaurant in Florida. The Los Angeles Times reported at the time that they were then filmed travelling to Caddell’s Palm Beach apartment, where they reportedly stayed until the following morning. A source also told PEOPLE that they had been “hooking up for months”.

Hansen was married to Mary Joan Hansen at the time, and they had two sons.

Caddell later gave her own account of the relationship. She said she had met Hansen in March 2011 and that he told her his marriage was effectively over.

In an open letter published in 2013, she wrote, “Chris told me a divorce was inevitable and the wedding ring on his finger was all but for the show.”

She added, “Chris gave me no reason at all to believe our relationship was a secret and I trusted him implicitly.”

Caddell also said Hansen had travelled with her, stayed in hotels with her, introduced her to some of his colleagues and spoken to her family.

But Hansen has given a very different account. In a 2020 interview with MEL Magazine, he rejected the idea that he had been having an affair with Caddell. He described the controversy as “a whole lot of nothing”.

He said, “To equate having dinner with a friend to somebody committing a felony is neither fair nor a conversation worth having.”

Hansen also said Caddell had nothing to do with the eventual breakdown of his marriage. He said he and Mary Joan had already been separated and living apart for years before she filed for divorce in 2019.

Did the scandal end Chris Hansen’s NBC career?

Hansen remained at NBC after the allegations first emerged. In fact, the affair story did not immediately end his career at the network. He continued working with NBC for another couple of years before leaving in 2013.

There was speculation at the time that the scandal had affected Hansen’s career prospects at NBC. One report claimed executives had considered Hansen as a potential Dateline anchor but reconsidered after the allegations emerged.

However, an NBC News spokesperson rejected that claim, saying, “This couldn’t be further from the truth.”

Sources close to Hansen also dismissed the idea that the affair allegations had affected his position.

Then, in 2013, NBC did not renew Hansen’s contract after around 20 years with the network.

NBC said, “Chris has been a valued member of the team. And we thank him for his many contributions to Dateline and NBC News over the last 20 years. We wish him the very best.”

Hansen subsequently moved into other television projects, including Killer Instinct on Investigation Discovery and Hansen vs. Predator on Crime Watch Daily.

So, where is Chris Hansen now?

Hansen continued working in investigative journalism and returned to the To Catch a Predator format in different forms, including Hansen vs. Predator and later Takedown with Chris Hansen.

He also launched TruBlu, his own true-crime streaming platform.

In 2020, Hansen launched Predators I’ve Caught, looking back at his previous investigations. He later added Have a Seat with Chris Hansen, where he interviews people connected to true-crime and law-enforcement stories.

He has also had some alleged legal and financial problems since leaving NBC.

In January 2019, Hansen was arrested in Connecticut and charged with issuing bad checks after allegedly failing to pay a business for promotional materials. The case was dropped later that month after he paid the bill, according to his lawyer.

He also faced an eviction from his Manhattan apartment around the same period. Hansen later pushed back against the idea that he had been thrown out on the street.

“The suggestion that I was tossed on the street is simply not true,” he told MEL. “I moved to another apartment. A better apartment. A bigger apartment.”

His first marriage eventually ended too. Mary Joan filed for divorce in 2018, and their divorce was finalised in 2020 after nearly 30 years of marriage. Hansen remarried Gabrielle Gagnon in 2021.

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