Meg Ryan is in a class all by herself! The 61-year-old beauty has a legendary career in Hollywood as a romantic comedy icon, a daring dramatic actress, and a burgeoning director. Born Margaret Mary Emily Hyra on November 19, 1961 in Fairfield Connecticut, Meg left college a semester early to start her career in the soap opera As The World Turns. Soon she found parts in Top Gun, Innerspace — which she co-starred with her future husband Dennis Quaid — and The Presidio. Her breakthrough came with 1989’s rom-com When Harry Met Sally, making Meg a household name. From there, it was a string of hits such as The Doors, Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail.
More recently, Meg has appeared in several television shows, while working her talents behind the camera as well. More recently, she’s returned to her romantic comedy roots! She’s the star of the new film What Happens Later with David Duchovny. Besides starring as the leading lady, she’s also the director the film!
Her personal life is just as successful! Meg is the proud mother to her biological son Jack Quaid, 31, and adopted daughter Daisy True Ryan, 18. Find out all about her amazing children, below.
Jack Quaid
Meg and Dennis got married on Valentine’s Day in 1991. After welcoming Jack on April 24, 1992, the couple divorced in July 2001. Their co-parenting skills, however, appear to have influenced Jack to follow in their Hollywood footsteps, as he has become successful in his own right. After attending New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, he landed his first professional role in 2012 when he appeared in The Hunger Games as Marvel. Since then, he’s acted in the romantic comedy Plus One, the HBO series Vinyl, and Amazon Prime’s The Boys. Jack also starred in the long-awaited Scream film in 2022. He’s also gone into TV voice acting, with roles in My Adventures with Superman and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
“I always had the performing bug,” Jack told WWD in 2017. “I would do magic shows for family growing up. Terrible magic tricks. Like, ‘You see this pencil? Now it’s gone.” He went on to say his first role in a school production of “Midsummer’s Night Dream” was what cemented his desire to act. “I got my first laugh onstage, and I was like, ‘Now I want to do this forever,” he explained.
Of course, with two superstar parents, Jack has said that both Meg and Dennis are very supportive of him in a 2022 interview with People. “It’s lucky that I got to grow up saying, ‘Hey, I want to be an actor,’ and they understood that … and supported me going into it,” he told the outlet.
Daisy True Ryan
Daisy was born in China in 2004 and adopted by Meg when she was 14 months old. “I am convinced, completely convinced that there was nothing random about it. She is the daughter I should have,” Meg told Redbook in 2007. “She is the daughter I should have. I never felt like I was on a rescue mission or anything like that. I just really wanted a baby; I was on a mission to connect with somebody, and Daisy and I got to meet each other this way at this time. We are so compatible. And also having the experience of having had Jack and now to have Daisy in a different way — there’s no difference in the love you feel.”
Since the adoption, the adorable pair seem to be inseparable, as they are often spotted on outings in New York and Los Angeles for some retail therapy. Daisy was even seen sitting next to Meg in the front row of the Schiaparelli show during the Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week in July 2019. How cute!
