Dr. Oz’s wife, children, religion, and more

Dr. Oz testified before the Senate on March 14, 2025, regarding his nomination to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Donald Trump’s administration. The former heart surgeon and increasingly controversial TV personality, whose full name is Mehmet Oz, will likely secure approval thanks to a Republican majority in the Senate.

Should his place be confirmed, Oz will oversee Medicare and Medicaid spending, in addition to setting rules that affect the private health insurance sector. The Dr. Oz Show star ditched TV for politics in 2022, so let’s look at his history.

Oz’s wife

Mehmet and Lisa Oz have been married since 1985. The couple met through their surgeon fathers (Mustafa Öz and Gerald Lemole), who were present during their “awkward” first dinner date, per Yahoo. “He didn’t speak to me the entire dinner. He spoke to my mom,” Lisa said.

Mehmet told People in 2015 that the secret to their success was keeping the relationship fresh by accepting growth and evolution in each other. He explained, “Every seven years you have to reinvent the relationship — this is true not just for marriage, it’s true for work and other friendships — but especially in a marriage.”

He added that he felt as if he had been “married to four women,” due to how much Lisa had changed over the years. “It’s 30 years [of marriage] this year, but it’s really four different women. They all have the same social security number,” he said.

Before becoming a mom, Lisa was a television and film actor, appearing in the likes of Dallas until the early 80s. She also was integral to launching her husband’s TV career, coming up with the idea for him to host his own show after he began appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show in the 2000s.

She confirmed she wanted to concentrate on Mehmet’s career in a Prime Women interview. “When I started creating shows for him rather than for myself, helping him build his health and wellness brand, which changed the trajectory of his career, it was great.”

His children

Oz and his wife Lisa have four children: Daphne, Zoe, Oliver, and Arabella. They are all adults now. Oz’s grandchildren are Philomena Bijou, Jovan, Domenica Celine, and Giovanna Ines.

Daphne

Daphne is the most recognized, having been one of the co-hosts of the cooking shows The Chew and The Good Dish. She and her husband have four children.

Arabella

Arabella had a brief acting career from 2015 onwards, appearing in movies like Jigsaw. Nowadays, she’s working as a mental health counselor as she wrote in her Instagram bio.

Zoe

Oz’s third daughter Zoe opted for the tech sector instead of an entertainment career. She works for the startup Bilt Rewards, a loyalty program that grants reward points for users’ rental payments. She has been its chief marketing officer since 2018.

Oliver

Oliver followed in his father’s footsteps and is a medical student. He graduated from Harvard University and has been in med school since 2021. He married his wife Katie Ballantine in 2023.

What is Oz’s religion?

Dr. Oz identifies as a “secular Muslim” as of 2022. Secular typically means the person believes in the separation of religion from civic affairs and the state.

When he lost his Nov. 2022 Senate election, he was the first Muslim candidate to be nominated by either major party. If he had won, Oz would have been the first Muslim to serve in the U.S. Senate, the first to serve in the United States Congress as a Republican, and one of the wealthiest Congress members.

Oz has a history of distancing himself from negative perceptions of Islam, perhaps to better appeal to his Republican base. He has expressed opposition to Sharia law in the U.S., saying “We don’t want Sharia law in America,” on conservative outlet Real America’s Voice, referring to Islam’s historic legal system.