{"id":25619,"date":"2026-06-21T21:09:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/james-van-der-beek-fathers-day-tributes-from-widow-dawsons-creek-mom-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T21:09:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T21:09:52","slug":"james-van-der-beek-fathers-day-tributes-from-widow-dawsons-creek-mom-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/21\/james-van-der-beek-fathers-day-tributes-from-widow-dawsons-creek-mom-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"James Van Der Beek Father's Day tributes from widow, 'Dawson's Creek' mom – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimberly Van Der Beek<\/a> is paying tribute to her late husband, James Van Der Beek<\/a>, on the first Father’s Day after the beloved “Dawson’s Creek”<\/a> actor’s death.
Van Der Beek, a father of six, died on Feb. 11 at age 48<\/a>, following a prolonged battle with stage 3 colorectal cancer. On Father’s Day, June 21, Kimberly posted a series of photos on her Instagram<\/a> page.
“Missing you so much and thinking of how magnificent you were in every single way today,” Kimberly wrote in the photo caption. “And somehow, from the other side? You continue to parent. You’re a marvel.”
James Van Der Beek’s widow <\/strong>Says ‘words just don’t capture’ grief<\/a><\/span>
Van Der Beek was\u00a0diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer<\/a>\u00a0in August 2023 and\u00a0shared his illness with the public<\/a>\u00a0in November 2024. He continued working, in spite of his health battle, appearing on shows like the CW’s “Walker” (2024) and Amazon Prime Video\u2019s comedy\u00a0“Overcompensating”<\/a>\u00a0(2025).
The couple married in August 2010 and welcomed six children over the next decade, including their eldest daughter, Olivia, now 15, son Joshua, now 13, daughter Annabel, 11, daughter Emilia, 10, daughter Gwendolyn, 8, and son Jeremiah, 5, (born in 2021). Family life became a central focus for the couple throughout their marriage, with James frequently sharing his pride in fatherhood on Instagram.
Longtime family friend Dr. Cass Naumann wrote in the comments of the Father’s Day post.
“The only thing that brought him more joy than being a father was being your husband,” Naumann wrote. “He was\/is such a role model to my son of what a loving, healthy father looks like.”
Last month, Kimberly Van Der Beek wrote about the raw pain of losing her husband.
“To say I’m heartbroken is a severe understatement. Words just don’t capture what grief is,”\u00a0Kimberly<\/a> wrote in a May 12\u00a0Instagram post<\/a> with multiple family photos.
“The comforts of shock have worn off,” she wrote. “The reality is settling in… and I miss him. We all miss him.”
“Dawson\u2019s Creek” star and TV mom Mary Margaret Humes paid tribute to former co-star Van Der Beek on the day before Father’s Day.
\u201cWishing all of the amazing dads throughout this vast universe a Happy Father\u2019s Day weekend,\u201d Humes, 72, captioned her\u00a0Saturday Instagram post<\/a>, a throwback “Dawson Creek” photo featuring Humes (Gail Leery), Van Der Beek (son Dawson Leery) and John Wesley Shipp (who played Mitch Leery, the show patriarch and Dawson’s father).
“A shout out to simpler times,” Humes wrote. “My advice? Give big, meaningful hugs and tell them you love them while you still have the chance.”<\/p>\n

source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kimberly Van Der Beek is paying tribute to her late husband, James Van Der Beek, on the first Father’s Day after the beloved “Dawson’s Creek” actor’s death.Van Der Beek, a father of six, died on Feb. 11 at age 48, following a prolonged battle with stage 3 colorectal cancer. On Father’s Day, June 21, Kimberly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}