Next to his smiling face, cheek to cheek with that of his wife Kimberly Brook, James Van Der Beek had reminded everyone what the woman he married 15 years earlier represented for him: “The most extraordinary human being I have ever met”. The post was published on August 2nd, the anniversary of their wedding, and contained the promise that one day the actor would tell what his partner had “endured in the last two years” and how, with her example, she had shown him what it meant to live.
Six months after that dedication of love, the most fearsome news came from Kimberly: “Our beloved James David Van Der Beek died peacefully this morning” announced the woman whom her husband never left, just as they had sworn to each other on their wedding day, “in health and in sickness”. The illness, the one that at a certain point turned their lives upside down and which they both managed with great determination. Six children were born from their love and the couple had suffered four miscarriages.
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Love for Kimberly (after a first marriage)
Before marrying Kimberly Brook, James Van Der Beek was married to actress Heather McComb. The two were formally linked from 2003 to 2010 and in that same year, as soon as the divorce was made official, the actor and Kimberly Brook became husband and wife in an intimate ceremony at the Kabbalah Center, near Dizengoff Square, in Tel Aviv.
Reserved, away from the spotlight, united by a deep feeling, the couple had six children, four girls and two boys. Olivia was born in September 2010, just a month after the wedding; Joshua in 2012, Annabel in 2014, Emilia in 2016, Gwendolyn in 2018 and finally Jeremiah in 2021. All the births of his children were celebrated on social media, sharing with fans the joy of becoming a parent and also the happiness of being next to the woman of his life.
“Being a parent is certainly not easy, but it is much more fun when you are there,” he wrote in 2022 in a post dedicated to Kimberly: “There are times when we feel frustrated, times when we feel overwhelmed by how exhausted we are and overwhelmed beyond the limits of patience. But it is also an adventure. Thank you for always reminding me that, in the midst of chaos, there can be pure magic. There can be joy.”
Abortions and the story of “devastating” pain
Happy moments, but also devastating ones. In fact, James Van Der Beek’s family life had also been upset by four abortions, one of which had put his wife’s life at serious risk. “Destroyed. Devastated. In shock. This is how we feel immediately after the soul we thought we were welcoming into our family in April, took a shortcut to what is beyond this life”, the actor said in November 2019: “We have already been through this, but never so late in the pregnancy and never accompanied by this sense of threat so frightening, horrible for Kimberly’s health. I am grateful that she is recovering now, but now we are dealing with everything the rest.”
Then, again, joy. Two years later, with the birth of Jeremiah. “After two miscarriages, we kept this pregnancy a secret”, the actor said: “When I discovered that we were expecting another child, I was terrified. Each child brings their own energy, their own manifestation of conscience, their own lessons”.
James Van Der Beek’s last post dates back to a few days ago, on the occasion of the birthday of one of his daughters and his father, celebrated on the same day: “The world is a better place because you two are there”, the conclusion of a thought that tells how, until the end, he was not only a husband, but also a father and a wonderful son.
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