IN an exclusive ENQUIRER interview, Duane Chapman revealed that he staged an intervention for his son and put him in rehab.
Christopher Michael Hecht, 41, is in rehab in Colorado after the “Dog the Bounty Hunter” star arranged for friends and family to tell Christopher he needed help. They staged the intervention during Dog’s birthday celebration in early February.
“It took six days for us to convince him,” Chapman told The ENQUIRER. “Christopher’s mom committed suicide in the ’70s while I was in a Texas prison doing 18 months. I didn’t know I had a son until I got out.”
Dog recounted some of the troubles Christopher has faced.
“In 1991, I got him out of jail and he lived with me for a while but then he started drinking and his life went downhill,” he said. “Over the years, if he wasn’t in prison, I was in contact with him. At one point, I made a deal with him and said, ‘If you are good for one year we can have contact with you.’ ”
But Christopher struggled with alcohol over the years.
FINALLY, JUST WEEKS AGO, DOG and the family confronted him.
“He came to Hawaii on Feb. 5,” said Dog. “I had a birthday party and we all did an intervention.
“We told him, ‘We need to get you right. You need to be a good boy and get straightened out.’
“I’m not getting younger. I just gotta get this kid right. I didn’t get the chance to do it when he was a baby, but now I can do it.”
Chapman shot to fame on his A&E show “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” It was canceled in 2012 but the star and his wife Beth returned to the little screen last year on the CMT reality series, “Dog and Beth: On the Hunt.” Dog featured some of his kids – he had 12 with several different women – on his shows, including sons Leland and Duane Lee and daughter Lyssa.
Meanwhile, Christopher has led a troubled life. He served time in 1993 for “gay bashing” and was charged in 2007 with ethnic intimidation after he threw a drink on a black man, called him the N-word and threatened to beat him up. He paid $310 in fines and court costs. In 2008, he was arrested for allegedly punching a blind man.
Chapman said it took four days to convince Christopher to go to Peer 1 rehab in Denver.
“He was hesitant at first,” Dog said. “But all of our family worked on him. He cried his eyes out.”
Christopher finally relented, telling Chapman: “Daddy, I’ll do it for you.”
But Dog says he told Christopher: “You have to do it for yourself.”
He added: “But I feel relief that he’s in rehab now. Thank God someone is there to help him. I’m praying for him every day.”
Chapman and family will not be allowed to visit Christopher for four months.
“Then we’ll make a family visit,” Dog said. “They need to reprogram his mind.” He added that Christopher is determined to straighten out his life. “He even told me that he wants to be a counselor,” Dog said.
