{"id":515222,"date":"2026-03-10T15:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/515222\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T15:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:23:09","slug":"joshua-jackson-breaks-his-silence-on-james-van-der-beeks-death-the-tragedy-of-that-loss-for-his-family-is-enormous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/515222\/","title":{"rendered":"Joshua Jackson Breaks His Silence on James Van Der Beek\u2019s Death: \u2018The Tragedy of That Loss for His Family Is Enormous\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n

Joshua Jackson reflected on James Van Der Beek\u2019s legacy, calling him a devoted husband, father and \u201cgood man\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Der Beek, who had six children, died at 48 after being diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer<\/p>\n

Jackson partnered with AstraZeneca on a PSA encouraging cancer screenings and raising awareness about early detection to honor Van Der Beek<\/p>\n

Nearly one month after James Van Der Beek<\/a>\u2019s tragic death<\/a>, his Dawson\u2019s Creek costar Joshua Jackson<\/a> is speaking out for the first time on the loss.<\/p>\n

Jackson, 47, appeared on the Today<\/a> show on Tuesday, March 10 in an interview with Craig Melvin<\/a> to discuss Van Der Beek\u2019s death and how he\u2019s honoring his late friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it hits in a variety of different ways,\u201d Jackson said of processing the loss. \u201cFor me as a father now, the enormity of that tragedy hits me in a very different way than just as a colleague so I think the processing is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jackson is father to 5-year-old daughter Juno with ex Jodie Turner-Smith<\/a>. Van Der Beek and his wife, Kimberly, had six children together<\/a>, ages 15 to 4.<\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

James Van Der Beek with wife Kimberly and their six kids.
Credit: James Van Der Beek\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Jackson added that he\u2019s been thinking about his former costar\u2019s life and legacy \u201cquite a bit\u201d over the past few weeks, saying of their Dawson\u2019s Creek days, \u201cIt was formational for us. And I know both of us look back on that time with great fondness. But I will also say is I know that I\u2019m just a footnote in what he actually accomplished in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Praising Van Der Beek, Jackson continued, \u201cHe became what we used to just call a \u2018good man,\u2019 a man of the kind of belief, the kind of faith that allowed him to face the impossible with grace, an unbelievable partner and husband, right? Just a real man who showed up for his family and a beautiful, kind, curious, interested, dedicated father. And so while on the one hand that\u2019s beautiful and I think he did lead a very good life and he was a good man, it is also, the tragedy of that loss for his family is enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Katie<\/p>\n

Katie Holmes, Josh Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson on ‘Dawson’s Creek.’
Credit: Warner Bros.\/Getty<\/p>\n

Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter<\/a> to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Van Der Beek died at the age of 48 after being diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer.<\/p>\n

To honor Van Der Beek\u2019s memory, Jackson partnered with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca for a PSA promoting cancer screening featuring Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty.<\/p>\n

\"Joshua<\/p>\n

Joshua Jackson, James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams and Kerr Smith from ‘Dawson’s Creek’ in 2003.
Credit: Kevin Mazur\/WireImage<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realize the number is 65% of people in our age cohort haven\u2019t gone out and gotten tested,\u201d he explained. \u201cHaven\u2019t started the conversation. That\u2019s where the idea started. I also liked that they wanted to do something that was a little bit light because this is not a fun conversation. It\u2019s kind of scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged men to visit the getbodychecked.com<\/a> website to view providers in the area and to assist with lingering questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the testing and screening has gotten better, but it\u2019s also true the earlier you find something, the better your possible outcomes are,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t know about the guys that you know, but the guys that I know, guys don\u2019t like to talk about this. We don\u2019t like to go to the doctor. We don\u2019t like to deal with this stuff. There are a lot of ways in your life, that stiff upper lip thing can be helpful, but in this, it\u2019s not helpful at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the original article on People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW Joshua Jackson reflected on James Van Der Beek\u2019s legacy, calling him a devoted husband, father…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[172699,21874,1251,26496,88,39781,26497,1789,103397],"class_list":["post-515222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cancer-screenings","tag-colorectal-cancer","tag-craig-melvin","tag-dawsons-creek","tag-entertainment","tag-james-van-der-beek","tag-joshua-jackson","tag-philadelphia-flyers","tag-van-der-beek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}