{"id":477320,"date":"2026-02-13T12:35:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477320\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T12:35:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T12:35:11","slug":"hollywood-star-alfonso-ribeiros-heartbreaking-final-moment-with-late-james-van-der-beek-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/477320\/","title":{"rendered":"Hollywood star Alfonso Ribeiro\u2019s heartbreaking final moment with late James Van Der Beek revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

US sitcom icon Alfonso Ribeiro has shared a glimpse of his heartbreaking final moments with the late James Van Der Beek before his death.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tributes have poured in from former castmates and celebrity friends of the Dawson’s Creek star after he died following a battle with cancer this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those to publicly share their grief include Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor Riberio, who on Friday morning posted a tear-jerking picture of himself with Van Der Beek shortly before he died.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Riberio \u2013 the godfather of Van Der Beek\u2019s daughter Gwen \u2013 was shown in the Instagram post embracing his late friend as he lay in bed.<\/p>\n

He said the picture was taken by Van Der Beek\u2019s wife, Kimberley, \u201cjust a few minutes before I said my last goodbye\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy last moment was making him laugh one last time,\u201d Ribeiro wrote in the post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really miss him already.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes after Riberio earlier this week paid his respects to the Dawsons Creek Star in heartfelt social media post, saying he was \u201cso broken right now\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was my true friend brother and life guide. I was with him through this horrible journey to beat cancer,\u201d Ribeiro wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis family and friends went on this roller coaster ride. The highs when it looked like he had it beat to the breaking lows of it coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star said he had \u201clearned so much\u201d from Van Der Beek and that him and Kimberly had \u201cchanged my life\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will forever be in debt for all they\u2019ve given me and my family. He will live forever in my heart,\u201d Riberio said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will always be there for their children. I will always hold my role as Gwen\u2019s Goddie daddy (sic) as one of the most important roles of my life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you James and know I have a guardian angel watching over me. Being able to say goodbye this weekend will always live with me. RIP my brother. RIP.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other Hollywood names to pay respects to the late actor include his Dawson’s Creeks co-star Katie Holmes, who shared a handwritten note addressed to Van Der Beek.<\/p>\n

She described their time together as “sacred” and offered support to Kimberly and the couple\u2019s six children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI formed some words with a heavy heart. This is a lot to process,\u201d Holmes posted to Instagram alongside a picture of the heartfelt letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so grateful to have shared in a piece of James\u2019 journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes after Van Der Beek died aged 48 on Wednesday following a battle with bowel cancer, after having revealed his diagnosis in November 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe set up to support the actor\u2019s family in the wake of his death had raised over $2 million as of Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US sitcom icon Alfonso Ribeiro has shared a glimpse of his heartbreaking final moments with the late James…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[131220,64,63,1617,447,14312,1300,134,111042,9119],"class_list":["post-477320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-alfonso-ribeiro","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cancer","tag-celebrities","tag-dawsons-creek","tag-death","tag-entertainment","tag-james-van-der-beek","tag-tribute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}