Alan Ritchson is best known for playing former military investigator Jack Reacher in Amazon’s TV show “Reacher.” But his personal life has also had its fair share of dramatic twists and turns.

As a teenager, Ritchson had a summer fling with the girl who would later become his wife. They reconnected as adults and started a family together.

Fast forward almost 20 years, and the former model shares fun snapshots of his personal life with his wife and children on Instagram, alongside career highlights.

Ritchson’s fame has slowly grown over the past two decades as he’s earned more recognition for his acting. He first started making a name for himself in the early 2000s with “Smallville” and “Blue Mountain State.” Then, in the 2010s, he starred in bigger movies including “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

Landing “Reacher” in 2019, which became a big success, saw him become a fully-fledged leading star, and Ritchson has since become one of the buzziest names in the film and TV industry.

“Reacher” is based on the books by Lee Child, and an adaptation of the 2003 novel “Persuader” is expected at the end of 2024 or early 2025. The actor can also be seen in Guy Ritchie’s “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” as the real-life Danish soldier Anders Lassen.

Here’s what to know about the “Reacher” star’s family.

Ritchson briefly dated Catherine when they were teenagers but broke up after the summer.

Alan Ritchson and Catherine Ritchson at the “Reacher” season one premiere in Los Angeles. Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Ritchson met his wife, Catherine, when they were teenagers at high school in Florida. He told Men’s Health in February that he had a crush on her while they were in the same ballet class, but it took him a long time to pluck up the courage to speak to her.

“After the millionth time of us sitting next to each other, inches away, tying our shoes — so now it’s super awkward — I was like, ‘So, I heard you ice-skate.’ She was like the sweetest thing in the world,” Ritchson said.

The couple dated for several months in 1999 when they were 17, but Ritchson broke it off after the summer, and they lost touch. When appearing on “The Road to Wisdom” podcast, Catherine joked that her husband still defends his decision to call things off.

“I’ve made him pay for it ever since. He still justifies it. He’s like, ‘You lived 30 minutes away, I couldn’t afford gas,'” she said.

The couple reconnected and got married in 2006.

After high school, Catherine was studying at the University of Florida, and Ritchson was pursuing his modeling career. When he visited Miami for a photo shoot in 2004, a mutual friend reconnected the pair, and they started dating again.

On the podcast, Catherine explained that they dated for a year and then were engaged for a year before getting married in 2006. Ritchson posted a photo of him and his wife on Instagram to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary in 2021.

“They seemed invincible when they said, ‘I do.’ Life would humble him and demand he accept his humanity, his mortality, his purpose,” he wrote.

“She’d meet this reality head on with the grace of the ballerina she was when they met and the strength of a lioness they hadn’t yet.”

Catherine has always been vocally supportive of her husband. Before “Reacher” debuted in 2019, she wrote on Instagram: “To say ‘I’m so proud of him’ won’t ever grasp it.⁣ I hope you love this series as much as Alan loved making it. Because my goodness did he put his all into making it.⁣”

Ritchson and Catherine have three sons: Calem, Elam, and Amory.

In 2012, Catherine gave birth to their first son, Calem, and they welcomed Edan a year later. Their third son, Amory, was born in 2015.

Ritchson didn’t share photos of his sons online until after Amory’s birth, when he announced that he was a dad of three.

In December 2023, the actor told The Wall Street Journal that the family lives a nomadic lifestyle because of his job, not too dissimilar to the character he plays in “Reacher.”

“Being away from my family for long stretches on location was hard on them and me. So, Cat and I recently sold our Florida house and we now live in Airbnbs and hotels while I’m on set,” he said.