{"id":479252,"date":"2026-02-14T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/479252\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T10:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T10:00:18","slug":"american-tv-star-shares-touching-photo-of-friend-james-van-der-beek-days-before-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/479252\/","title":{"rendered":"American TV star shares touching photo of friend James Van Der Beek days before death"},"content":{"rendered":"

American TV star Alfonso Ribeiro has shared a touching photo of him and his friend James Van Der Beek<\/a> just days before the star\u2019s death earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The Dawson\u2019s Creek star died on Wednesday, with his wife Kimberley announcing the 48-year-old had passed \u201cpeacefully\u201d after losing his years-long battle with bowel cancer.<\/p>\n

Tributes for the father of six have poured in online, with Ribeiro sharing several posts in tribute to Van Der Beek on Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

On Friday, Ribeiro, who is the godfather to one of Van Der Beek\u2019s daughters, posted a photo of him hugging his friend as he lay in bed just days before his death.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was taken by Kimberley just a few minutes before I said my last goodbye,\u201d Riberio captioned the photo.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy last moment was making him laugh one last time. I really miss him already.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ribeiro, best known for his role as Carlton Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, had earlier said the news of his friend\u2019s death had \u201cbroken\u201d him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so broken right now with the passing of my friend today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019ve learned so much from James. He and Kimberley changed my life. I will forever be in debt for all they\u2019ve given me and my family.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will live forever in my heart. I will always be there for their children. I will always hold my role as Gwen\u2019s Goddie daddy as one of the most important roles of my life.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Van Der Beek\u2019s with his wife Kimberley and their six children. Credit: Instagram<\/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.\u201d<\/p>\n

It follows tributes from other actors including his Dawson\u2019s Creek co-star Katie Holmes, who said their time together had been \u201csacred\u201d.<\/p>\n

A GoFundMe page<\/a> was also launched with an initial goal of $US250k to support Van Der Beek\u2019s family financially and has now raised over $US2m.<\/p>\n

\"RibeiroRibeiro is god father to one of Van Der Beeks six children. Credit: Instagram<\/p>\n

The fundraiser included donations from Academy Award winner, Zoe Saldana, filmmaker Steven Spielberg and Wicked director Jonathan M. Chu.<\/p>\n

Other stars such as Derek Hough, Ricki Lake, Lydia Hearst and Kaley Cuoco, also contributed to the cause<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Van Der Beek was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer, announcing his battle with the disease in 2024 and becoming an advocate for cancer screening.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"American TV star Alfonso Ribeiro has shared a touching photo of him and his friend James Van Der…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,99,447,480,134,34464,1202,44,2041,1836,1314,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-479252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-celebrity","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-gofundme","15":"tag-instagram","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-north-america","18":"tag-public-health","19":"tag-social-media","20":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479252","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=479252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}