Brennan Elliott Opens Up About Returning to Work After His Wife’s Death from Cancer: ‘I Feel Like a Blank Canvas’ (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• Brennan Elliott stars in A Castle of Our Own, his first Hallmark movie since his wife Camilla Row’s death in March 2025

• Elliott reflects on his grief journey, sharing how therapy and time have helped him heal and rediscover joy

• The actor cherishes time with his children and says his late wife would be proud of the man he is now

Brennan Elliott previously starred in 31 Hallmark movies, but, in many ways, his 32nd feels like a first.

The film, A Castle of Our Own, premiering Saturday, June 27, arrives 15 months after Elliott’s wife, Camilla Row, died following a nine-year journey with gastric cancer. His character, Adam, is a man who feels stuck in place after his wife left him while he was building their dream home.

“I was stuck also,” Elliott, 51, tells PEOPLE. “It’s tough to move forward when certain things happen to you, but you’ve got to keep plugging away. I feel like this is the next chapter of my life.”

Elliott and Row share two children, Liam, 13, and Luna, 11. Row, a clinical psychologist, first revealed her cancer diagnosis in 2018 and became a known voice in the gastric cancer community as she shared her personal experiences. On March 22, 2025, Elliott revealed on Instagram that Row had died that morning at 45. “Our babies and I lost our rock, a person who not only was the love of my life, my soulmate, my best friend and lover, but the toughest strongest fearless person I have ever met in my life and the greatest mother to her babies,” Elliott wrote at the time.

“We miss her, but she was in so much pain. She’s at peace now, and we’ve had to rebuild,” Elliott says. “Grief doesn’t have to be scary. Yes, it’s painful, but it’s really taught me a lot about a lot of things that I wouldn’t have ever learned if I didn’t go through it.”

Not surprisingly, that grief journey has been a difficult one. The actor recalls going out to dinner with a friend in November and leaving early, uncomfortable with his longtime pal’s “gregarious” nature.

“I couldn’t handle it,” Elliott recalls. “Through therapy, I’m realizing I just needed to heal. I needed to spend some quiet time letting myself feel all the feelings I was feeling. To sit and channel those feelings and talk about them is impossible until you’re calm and grounded. That happened for me in probably February this year. So that’s almost 11 months of a tough grind. … And I feel like I’m starting to live again.”

Looking back, Elliott recognizes how different his experience working had been as he worried for his family and stressed about medical bills.

“For a lot of the time I was working while Cami was sick, it was a state of survival,” he says. “I was much more, ‘Let’s get this and let’s do this, let’s make it good, and I’ve got to call her and make sure she’s okay.’ I’d go film a movie or I’d do a TV series, and I’d make money and take care of her and take her to chemo.”

“My wife didn’t want to have to have me do it anymore,” he says. “She was the one that was like, ‘I need to get out of this. This is terrible for me and you.'”

He recently rewatched his 2022 film, The Gift of Peace, in which his character and Nikki DeLoach’s character came together in a grief support group while navigating losing their spouses. When it was filmed, DeLoach had recently lost her father, and Row’s cancer had taken a heartbreaking turn.

“I saw a totally different movie [than what I remembered]. I don’t know who that guy is anymore. That guy, that Brennan is the guy that’s surviving because he doesn’t want his wife to die and she’s going through all that chemo. I’m a caregiver. The man I am now is not that guy.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that guy and there’s nothing wrong with the guy I am now,” he continues. “I’ve gone through the stages of grief. I’ll always grieve her. I mean, she was my wife, the love my life, the mother of my children, but I can hear her in my head telling me, ‘This is when your career’s going to go and you’re really going to be happy and fun.’ … Now I’m coming to set as a blank canvas. I’m really embracing and enjoying the process and the journey.”

He’s also cherishing time with his kids and appreciating the little things in ways he says he hadn’t before.

“For a long time, life had a bit of a cloud. There was a little bit of a dim. The light didn’t shine right on the painting. The TV had some dust on it. There was always something that didn’t feel as alive and bright for me,” he says. “And now the food tastes better, music sounds better. I’m actually hearing my kids’ laughter. We went for a walk this morning to breakfast, and it was simple. It was hazy out and a little sprinkly, and we just talked, and I listened, and it was simple and beautiful.”

Smiling, Elliott adds, “I had lost a little bit of just me to be honest. And my wife was the one who always said, ‘Don’t lose you for my benefit. Please don’t lose you. That’s the person I love.’ I think she would be very proud of the man that I am now.”

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A Castle of Our Own, which also stars Erica Cerra, premieres Saturday, June 27, at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Hallmark Channel.

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