Patricia Heaton’s Two Husbands: Yankoglu & David Hunt

Patricia Heaton has been married twice. Her first marriage, to Constantine Yankoglu, lasted from October 10, 1984, until their divorce in 1987 and was annulled by the Catholic Church in 2017. Her second, to English actor and director David Hunt, began on October 13, 1990, and continues today. They have four sons.

One small detail connects the two weddings that no biography points out: both took place in October, three days apart on the calendar, six years apart in her life.

The First Marriage: Constantine Yankoglu (1984–1987)

Patricia Heaton married Constantine Yankoglu on October 10, 1984, when she was 26 and he was 30. Nothing about the wedding was reported at the time, because there was nothing to report — Heaton was an unknown actress from Bay Village, Ohio, still years away from her first television credit, and Yankoglu was a private citizen born in Fayette County, Kentucky.

The marriage lasted about three years and ended in divorce in 1987, with the filing citing irreconcilable differences. Neither of them has ever explained the split in detail. The closest thing to an account comes from Heaton’s 2002 memoir, Motherhood and Hollywood: How to Get a Job Like Mine, in which she described her first marriage as a rushed decision between two people who were not a good match. Yankoglu has never spoken publicly about the marriage, the divorce, or anything else — he withdrew from public life entirely and has stayed there for four decades. His full verified record, including his single film credit in Eight Men Out (1988), is on our main page about Constantine Yankoglu.

The Second Marriage: David Hunt (1990–Present)

How Patricia Heaton Met David Hunt

The meeting story of the second marriage is well documented, in contrast to the first. According to Heaton’s own retellings, she met David Hunt through a New York City apartment: Hunt sublet his place to her while he was away performing. Hunt, born in Covent Garden, London, had taken an unusual road to acting — he worked as a schoolteacher and coach before moving to New York, studied with acting teacher Larry Moss, and completed the Advanced Program at the Juilliard School.

They married on October 13, 1990. Actor Tony Shalhoub, a friend of Hunt’s from before he knew Heaton, was the best man. At that point Heaton was still six years away from Everybody Loves Raymond — meaning both of her marriages began before fame, not after it.

Four Sons and a Shared Company

Heaton and Hunt have four sons: Samuel, John Basil, Joseph Charles, and Daniel Patrick Hunt. In 2001 the couple founded a production company together and named it after them — Four Boys Entertainment. The company connects their family life directly to their working life, and Hunt has worked as a producer and director on projects tied to Heaton’s career, including during her post-Raymond years on The Middle (2009–2018) and Carol’s Second Act (2019–2020).

Hunt’s own screen work includes The Dead Pool (1988), Amazing Grace (2006), and Unexpected (2023). Unlike Heaton’s first husband, whose entire public record fits in a single paragraph, Hunt has a documented career, a Wikipedia page, and a public life alongside his wife.

How the 2017 Annulment Ties the Two Marriages Together

The two marriages intersect once, long after the first one ended. In June 2017, a Catholic Church tribunal annulled Heaton’s marriage to Yankoglu — a declaration that a valid sacramental marriage had never existed. Heaton, a practicing Catholic, has said in interviews that a priest of Opus Dei guided her through the process.

The timing explains the motive. Under Church law, her 1987 civil divorce did not end the first marriage in the Church’s eyes, which complicated her standing as a Catholic remarried to Hunt. The 2017 annulment resolved that: with the first marriage declared invalid, her marriage to Hunt could be fully recognized by the Church she had returned to. It is the one point where the private first husband and the public second husband appear in the same story — and even then, Yankoglu said nothing publicly. Whether he took part in the tribunal process was never disclosed.

What the Two Marriages Show Side by Side

The contrast is complete. The first marriage was short, undocumented, childless, and ended before Heaton’s career began; the second has lasted more than 35 years, produced four sons and a company, and ran through every stage of her fame — from her breakout as Debra Barone and two Primetime Emmy Awards to her later series. One husband left the public record almost entirely; the other became part of it. The only things the two marriages share are a bride and the month of October.

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