{"id":2318610,"date":"2026-03-08T19:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2318610"},"modified":"2026-03-08T19:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T19:10:09","slug":"james-van-der-beeks-widow-shares-tribute-on-his-heavenly-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/james-van-der-beeks-widow-shares-tribute-on-his-heavenly-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"James Van Der Beek&#8217;s widow shares tribute on his heavenly birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>James Van Der Beek was lovingly remembered by his widow, Kimberly, on what would have been the actor\u2019s 49th birthday on March 8th.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWould be your 49th birthday today,\u201d she <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/vanderkimberly\/?hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote on Instagram Stories<\/a> over a photo of the two of them. \u201cAnd I\u2019m missing you tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kimberly shared dozens of photos and videos of the \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d alum, including many featuring the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/parents\/meet-james-van-der-beeks-6-kids-with-wife-kimberly\/\">couple\u2019s six children<\/a>: daughters Olivia, Annabel, Emilia, and Gwendolyn, and sons Joshua and Jeremiah.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Kimberly Van Der Beek shared dozens of photos and videos in honor of her late husband\u2019s heavenly birthday. <span class=\"credit\">vanderkimberly\/instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>The actor died in February 2025 at the age of 48. <span class=\"credit\">vanderkimberly\/instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>In one clip, Van Der Beek is clearing brush.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJust a year and a half ago,\u201d Kimberly wrote. \u201cDoing what he loved. Working this land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other videos included the actor dancing with his kids.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>The couple shared six children.  <span class=\"credit\">vanderkimberly\/instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>Kimberly wrote that her late husband was \u201cthe best humanity had to offer.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">vanderkimberly\/instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cYou are the light of our lives,\u201d she wrote in the middle of the carousel. \u201cYour love. Beauty. Presence. Tenderness. Protection. Safety. Creativity. Singing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kimberly posted a photo of James cradling one of their brood as a newborn and wrote, \u201cThe way you were at birth, held our newborns, revered me\u2026I will cherish forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBaby, you were the best humanity had to offer,\u201d Kimberly wrote over a photo of the couple with five of their children, \u201cthis is a loss I don\u2019t know how to process. I will love you forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>She remembered James for the way he \u201cheld our newborns.\u201d <span class=\"credit\">vanderkimberly\/instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><figcaption>The \u201cDawson\u2019s Creek\u201d alum, seen here with two of his children, died of colorectal cancer. <span class=\"credit\">vanderkimberly\/instagram<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The \u201cVarsity Blues\u201d star died following a journey with <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/02\/11\/celebrity-news\/james-van-der-beek-dead-at-48-after-colorectal-cancer-battle\/\">stage 3 colorectal cancer at age 48 on Feb. 11<\/a> and had been\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2024\/11\/03\/celebrity-news\/james-van-der-beek-diagnosed-with-colorectal-cancer\/\">battling stage 3 cancer<\/a>\u00a0since August 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe met his final days with courage, faith and grace,\u201d Kimberly, 44, announced via Instagram. \u201cThere is much to share regarding his wishes, love for humanity and the sacredness of time. Those days will come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two days before his death, he and Kimberly <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pagesix.com\/2026\/02\/17\/celebrity-news\/james-van-der-beek-and-wife-kimberly-renewed-their-vows-from-bed-days-before-his-death\/\">renewed their wedding vows.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur friends got us new rings, filled our bedroom with flowers and candles and we renewed our vows from bed,\u201d the former film producer shared.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source pagesix.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Van Der Beek was lovingly remembered by his widow, Kimberly, on what would have been the actor\u2019s 49th birthday on March 8th. \u201cWould be your 49th birthday today,\u201d she wrote on Instagram Stories over a photo of the two of them. \u201cAnd I\u2019m missing you tremendously.\u201d Kimberly shared dozens of photos and videos of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2318611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[23383,24188,22062,24003,350582],"class_list":["post-2318610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-cancer","tag-celebrity-couples","tag-celebrity-deaths","tag-celebrity-news","tag-james-van-der-beek"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/James-Van-Der-Beeks-widow-shares-tribute-on-his-heavenly.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2318610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2318612,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318610\/revisions\/2318612"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2318611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2318610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2318610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2318610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}