Former Hallmark star Cameron Mathison recently opened up about his separation from his former wife, Vanessa Mathison.
The couple had been together for 22 years when, in July 2024, they announced their separation. They have kept the specifics regarding what led to the split private.
However, during the September 9 episode of Jennie Garth’s “I Choose Me” podcast, Mathison revealed that the split came as a shock to him.
The Hallmark Alum Navigated a Lot of Pain With the Split and Subsequent Wildfire
Mathison talked about how he had navigated quite a few difficulties in a short period of time, including a kidney cancer diagnosis, his mom’s cancer diagnosis and death, COVID-19, and a job loss.
Then, Mathison shared, he and his wife split. “It was a surprise to me..That was very, very hard and painful.”
After the split, his dog Red died, and then the family home burned down in the January California wildfires.
He acknowledged, “It’s been a stretch. I tried to stay positive and resilient and inspire others to get through stuff. But it definitely has its moments where it’s very challenging.”
When the fire happened, Mathison revealed, he and his wife had been “Separated for about a year and a half officially at that point, maybe a little bit longer, but still felt very fresh and we’re still working through stuff.”
He noted it was a “tricky time” and mentioned that there were “a lot of specific conditions that made it really tough.” Mathison told Garth, “You said it was a surprise to hear it…it was a surprise to me too.”
“We just have a lot of love for each other, but there was also a lot of pain at that time,” Mathison explained.
Due to the timing of the fire, which happened relatively soon after the couple’s split, Mathison said their timeline of transitioning to a good place after their breakup was “just kind of shortened.” The experience with the fire “just erased a lot of the negativity” that had existed between them, he added.
After the fire, “We kind of got to this real place of love and care and support, and we’re there for each other and cried and talked and hugged.” Mathison explained that they grew “really close,” but not in a sense of getting back together again.
Mathison mentioned that the couple’s children never expected the couple to split, either.
Cameron Mathison Was Living in the Guest House Before Announcing the Split
With everything that had been happening, Mathison said he experienced something like “a forced hard pivot.” It was as if he was heading down a road that he expected to stay steady, but then “there’s a hard hairpin turn that I got to make…I’m going right off this cliff.”
Mathison admitted he hadn’t been doing very well with the separation. Then, the wildfire “felt like it was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
He shared that he thinks his spirituality “probably saved my life.” He noted he wasn’t trying to be dramatic, but with the separation, he was in a lot of pain.
Before the couple publicly revealed their split, Mathison was living in a small guest house on their property. “I was in so much pain, not sleeping, my mind going…It was just a real dark low where I felt like everything was kind of slipping away.”
“I had a lot of frustration and confusion and fear. And all those things are so hard to sit with alone,” Mathison admitted.
As difficult as the separation has been for Mathison, he shared that he’s feeling good these days. With the combination of the loss of the house and his marriage, the actor now faces a fresh start. It seems he’s determined to do his best to embrace what lies ahead.
