{"id":320056,"date":"2026-03-09T03:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/320056\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T03:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T03:47:08","slug":"james-van-der-beeks-widow-and-a-daughter-share-birthday-tribute-to-late-actor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/320056\/","title":{"rendered":"James Van Der Beek\u2019s widow and a daughter share birthday tribute to late actor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimberly Van Der Beek shared more than 70 behind-the-scenes posts on Instagram giving the world a glimpse into the couple\u2019s private life. <\/p>\n

\u201cToday would be your 49th birthday today. I\u2019m missing you tremendously.\u201d<\/p>\n

She shared footage of her husband dancing with their children, getting his hands into building projects, flipping off a boat into the water \u2013 even breakdancing.<\/p>\n

Best known for playing the titular character on the 1990s series Dawson\u2019s Creek, Van Der Beek died of colorectal cancer on February 11, aged 48.<\/p>\n

In addition to his wife and Emilia, he is survived by the couple\u2019s five other children: Olivia, 15, Joshua, 13, Annabel, 12, Gwendolyn, 7, and Jeremiah, 4.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Van Der Beek and his wife. Photo \/ Kimberly Van Der Beek<\/p>\n

Kimberly Van Der Beek\u2018s posts go on to show her smiling husband in gloves and a singlet clearing bush on their farm.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust a year and a half ago. Doing what he loved. Working this land,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"JamesJames Van Der Beek working on his farm in Texas. Photo \/ Kimberly Van Der Beek<\/p>\n

The Van Der Beek family live on a 14ha farm just outside of Austin, Texas. After James died, the family\u2019s friends set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to support them. <\/p>\n

This resulted in some controversy after Realtor.com revealed the family purchased the sprawling ranch for $7.9 million one month before his death.<\/p>\n

The fundraiser went on to raise $4.7m, which some online found excessive.<\/p>\n

It was later pointed out that the house was bought with a loan with the help of their friends.<\/p>\n

Kimberly Van Der Beek\u2019s tribute did not mention the fundraiser but focused on her late husband.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaby, you were the best humanity had to offer. This is a loss I don\u2019t know how to process. I will love you forever,\u201d she said alongside a picture of the whole family together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kimberly Van Der Beek shared more than 70 behind-the-scenes posts on Instagram giving the world a glimpse into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[123311,3376,95,34690,158276,6325,14032,34689,156,71,10109,14054,4507,6096,111,139,69,2730,2122,3168,165,61,20838,11427,33016,102],"class_list":["post-320056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-9yearold","tag-actor","tag-and","tag-beek","tag-beeks","tag-birthday","tag-daughter","tag-der","tag-entertainment","tag-from","tag-husband","tag-james","tag-late","tag-message","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal","tag-share","tag-shared","tag-their","tag-to","tag-tribute","tag-van","tag-widow","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}