Former Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin was arrested on Thursday over an outstanding warrant, according to local authorities. And because nothing is normal anymore, there is a Texas tie.
Bevin, a Republican who served a term as the state’s top executive, was arrested in Bourbon County, Kentucky, Thursday over an outstanding bench warrant stemming from a child support case. Bevin was arrested on a Kentucky horse farm while filming a scene for The Greatest Christmas Gift, a Christmas film produced by Arlington, Texas-based Christian production company Great American Family.
According to Great American Family, The Greatest Christmas Gift stars Danica McKellar (The Wonder Years) and Matthew Marsden (Black Hawk Down, Atlas Shrugged) as a music teacher and her fiancé who are preparing for a Christmas wedding in their small town. When tragedy strikes, the couple realizes “that the greatest gifts are not found in perfect circumstances, but in steadfast faith, selfless love, and a community that reminds them hope is always worth believing in.”
Jessica Mohr, the owner of the Houstondale estate and horse farm where the movie’s wedding scene was being shot, told Louisville Public Media that Bevin was a “featured extra” in the movie.
“The sheriff showed up and was asking some people if they’d seen his picture, and a young man was like, ‘I think that gentleman’s inside,'” Mohr told the outlet. “And then there he was, and he was sitting there speaking to the lead male actor, and yeah, he was arrested.”
US President Donald Trump (R) smiles behind Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin during a rally at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky on November 4, 2019. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Bevin’s arrest stems from a long legal saga over his divorce and family history. Bevin’s ex-wife, Glenna, filed for divorce in 2023 because their marriage was “irretrievably broken.” Their divorce was finalized in 2025. This summer, a Jefferson County, Kentucky, family court judge issued two warrants for Bevins’ arrest. In May, Bevin failed to appear in court. At a press conference, he said that a “very large boulder” had crashed through his Maine vacation home and that he couldn’t appear in court.
Bevin paid a fine, and the warrant was rescinded, but the judge issued another arrest warrant in June after he failed to provide financial disclosures in a child support case. Bevin skipped a July hearing in Louisville in that case, where his son Jonah, whom the Bevins couple adopted from Ethiopia, is seeking financial support. Jonah alleges the Bevins abused him and sent him to an unlicensed “troubled teen” program in Jamaica, where he was abused further before eventually being abandoned in the country.
Bevin was apparently arrested Thursday after he posted on social media about the shoot, at which point someone called the Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office. Bevin was booked into a Louisville jail Thursday evening.
“My understanding is that originally (law enforcement) knew where he was because he posted a picture of himself with the (lead) actor,” Mohr told Louisville Public Media. “I’m pretty sure he deleted that picture.”
Given Bevins’ decidedly disastrous family life, it is ironic that he was arrested while shooting a scene as an extra in a wedding scene for a movie produced by a Texas-based cable channel that has billed itself as a home for “family friendly” content.
Founded originally as a country music channel, Great American Family was bought in 2021 by a company owned by former Hallmark channel CEO Bill Abbott. Abbott turned Great American Family into a pseudo-Hallmark-style channel with movies and series based around holidays. Abbott told conservative Texas news outlet The Texan in 2023 that viewership was growing, and that he based the company’s headquarters in the Dallas-Fort Worth area because of what he perceived as Texas’ values.
“Their only agenda is to do a great job,” Abbott said of Texas. “It is great to work in a state centered on being productive and not engineering a message. The values the state espouses are right in line with the content of Great American Family.”
Read between the lines, and much of what Abbott said in that 2023 interview clues you in that Great American Family has a somewhat rightward bent to its programming. Abbott stressed that the channel is dedicated to “celebrating the values of faith, family, and country that the vast majority of Americans want to see on television.”
Candace Cameron Bure attends the Great American Family Christmas Festival at UBS Arena on November 22, 2024 in Elmont, New York. (Photo by Marleen Moise/Getty Images) (Marleen Moise/Getty Images)
In 2022, Great American Family was at the center of controversy after former Hallmark actor Candace Cameron Bure jumped to Great American Family to become the company’s chief content officer. Bure, a born-again Christian, called the company’s leaders “Christians that love the Lord” and said she wanted “to promote faith programming and good family entertainment.”
In a wide-ranging Wall Street Journal interview, she decried what she said was more diversity and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in Hallmark Channel content as one reason for the move. She promised there would not be same-sex couples in Great American Family holiday productions.
“I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” Bure said.
The comments drew backlash, and prolific TV actor Neal Bledsoe left Great American Family over Bure’s comments. Abbott said Bure did not speak for the company.
“It’s certainly the year 2022, so we’re aware of the trends,” he said in 2022. “There’s no whiteboard that says, ‘Yes, this’ or ‘No, we’ll never go here.'”
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This article originally published at Former Kentucky Gov. arrested on set of Texas production company’s movie.