Personal Life
Family and Relationships
Sutherland has a twin sister who is a TV post-production supervisor in Toronto.
Sutherland has one daughter from his first marriage to Camelia Kath, the widow of Chicago guitarist/singer Terry Kath, to whom he was married from 1987 to 1990. Through his marriage to Camelia, he became stepfather to Michelle Kath, who has two sons.
Julia Roberts met Sutherland in 1990, when they co-starred in Flatliners. In August 1990, Roberts and Sutherland announced their engagement, with an elaborate studio-planned wedding scheduled for 14 June 1991. Roberts broke the engagement three days before the wedding allegedly because Sutherland had been meeting with a stripper named Amanda Rice. Sutherland denied having an affair with Rice and said that they only met because he liked to play pool. On the day of what was supposed to be their wedding, Roberts went to Ireland with Sutherland’s friend Jason Patric.
On 29 June 1996, Sutherland married Kelly Winn. The couple separated in 1999 and he filed for divorce in 2004. The divorce was finalized on 16 May 2008.
Hobbies
Sutherland is a guitar collector, the majority of which are Gibson Les Pauls. Recently, the Gibson Custom shop released a guitar (signed by Sutherland), the KS-336, as part of their ‘Inspired By’ series. When Queen appeared on VH1 in 2006 for the Rock Honors Event, Sutherland gave Queen’s introduction and announced that they are his favorite band, and that he has listened to them ever since he was a child.
Sutherland is an American football fan, particularly of USC Trojans football, and recorded a birthday message for former USC head coach Pete Carroll’s 56th birthday. After losing a bet to friend Dave Andreychuk over the 2010 New England Patriots versus Baltimore Ravens playoff game, Sutherland was forced to appear on the Late Show with David Letterman wearing a dress(click for pic!). He is also a NASCAR fan. He narrated the IMAX film NASCAR: The IMAX Experience. Additionally, his character Jack Bauer in 24 has used the name of team owner Jack Roush as an alias.
Additionally, Sutherland paints. One of his paintings served as the cover art for the twelfth edition of the Live X acoustic compilation series released by the American alternative rock radio station WNNX.
In the late 1990s, Sutherland, inspired by the experience in his films Young Guns, The Cowboy Way, and Cowboy Up, retired from acting briefly to pursue the rodeo circuit. He purchased a 900-acre (3.6 km2) ranch in Montana, and traveled on the road with the rodeo, he participated in numerous roping contests, two of which he won in Phoenix and Albuquerque.
Legal Troubles
Sutherland was arrested in Los Angeles on 25 September 2007, on drunk driving charges, after performing poorly on a field sobriety test. His test exceeded the state’s legal blood alcohol limit, and he was later released on a $25,000 bail. Sutherland pleaded no contest to the DUI charge and was sentenced to 48 days in jail. Initially, he arranged to split his sentence and spend 18 days in jail during 24‘s winter break in late December and early January 2008; the Hollywood writers’ strike interrupted production, allowing him to serve his sentence in 48 consecutive days.
Sutherland surrendered to NYPD on 7 May 2009 for head-butting fashion designer Jack McCollough, founder and co-designer of Proenza Schouler, at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo following a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Several weeks later, Sutherland and McCollough issued a joint statement in which Sutherland apologized; police later dropped the charges.
Business Ventures
Sutherland is the co-owner (along with Jude Cole) of the independent record label Ironworks.
Sutherland reportedly fell victim to a financial scam involving cattle in 2010. According to the Associated Press, the perpetrator, Michael Wayne Carr, allegedly took US $869,000 from Sutherland, ostensibly on the account of steers to be purchased. Prosecutors alleged that Carr never purchased the steers. Carr pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay US $956,000 in restitution to Sutherland and his investment partner.
