Heavy/Getty Cameron and Vanessa Mathison announced their split on July 31, 2024.
After 22 years of marriage, Hallmark alum Cameron Mathison and his wife, Vanessa Mathison, have split. On July 31, 2024, amid growing speculation from fans about the status of their marriage, the Mathisons released a statement to ET Online and then posted it on Instagram, with the comments turned off.
“After 22 years of marriage, we have made the difficult decision to part ways,” the couple said in a joint statement. “We enter this new chapter with deep love, kindness, and respect for each other. We hold gratitude in our hearts for the wonderful years we shared together.”
The Mathisons met in 1998 when they were both working as models in New York City, per ET, and have two grown kids — son Lucas, 21, and daughter Leila, 18.
Their statement continued, “Our children have been and will continue to be our highest priority, and we will forever share in our devotion and love for them. We remain friends, and both wish the best for one another. We sincerely appreciate your respect for our family’s privacy during this transition.”
Cameron Mathison’s Divorce News Confirms Fan Speculation About Marriage Trouble
News of the Mathisons’ split comes after fans began questioning the status of their relationship, noticing that Cameron, 54, and Vanessa, 57, had both deleted many of their past social media posts together and had not posted about one another for many months.
On an Instagram post the day before their announcement, Cameron, who left Hallmark in November 2023 to join Great American Family, shared photos from a summer trip with his kids. Noticing that Vanessa wasn’t part of the trip, many fans grew curious.
When one fan commented, “Where is his wife?” other followers chimed in that they’d been wondering the same.
One wrote, “it’s like she’s been wiped from his social media” and another noted, “their anniversary was three days ago. I didn’t see either acknowledge it on social media.”
“Something’s wrong,” another surmised. “They have taken pics down of both their social media of them together, even Va as with the children.”
Cameron did not respond to fan speculation, but when someone asked Vanessa on her May 27 Instagram post whether they were still together, she replied two days later, “I don’t post really post personal photos on this account. My IG is mostly used as my portfolio for work”
Though the two used to gush about each other on social media, Cameron’s most recent Instagram photo featuring Vanessa is over two years old, from April 2022, when she had a role on his soap opera, “General Hospital.”
A birthday tribute to her that same month, in which People reported that he called Vanessa “my best friend, spiritual partner, ultimate travel companion, love of my life, and the most incredible mom to our kids I could ever imagine,” has since been deleted.
Cameron & Vanessa Mathison Went Through Many Personal Changes in Last Years of Marriage
Ahead of their 20th anniversary in 2022, Cameron told ET that the first five years of their marriage had been particularly challenging, explaining, “We’ve been married 20 years coming up this summer, and it hasn’t all been smooth, for sure. We went through rocky times the first five years. Getting through those times, and getting to call Vanessa my best friend and fully enjoy every moment together, it’s been better than I could have ever imagined marriage being for me.”
But the last several years of the Mathisons’ marriage brought personal challenges for each of them that they both described as life-changing, which may have contributed to them growing apart.
In 2019, Cameron underwent successful surgery for kidney cancer, which kickstarted a major health journey for him, telling ET Online in June, “You know that I work really hard at this and I take it real serious, as far as this transformation and rebounding from the cancer journey, specifically.”
He has also made major career moves in recent months, signing a three-year deal with Great American Family in the fall of 2023 after years of being a Hallmark regular and becoming the host of Game Show Network’s new “Beat the Bridge,” which premiered in June.
Vanessa, meanwhile, has opened up on Instagram about her decision in 2023 to have her breast implants removed and the life-changing impact of that choice.
On June 28, she wrote, “My first real summer since my breast explant. First time exposing my scars and my new shape. I contemplated removing my scars from these photos … but they are a part of me and my journey, so I decided to leave them.”
She continued, “There is a whole movement of brave women removing their breast implants – saying [expletive] you to society’s patriarchal beauty standards, loving their beautiful natural body, and teaching their daughters and all young women that we are enough just the way we are. I stand with all these brave women, scars and all.”
Cameron wrote a supportive comment on her post, writing, “Beautiful before, even more beautiful now. And an inspiration to many🙏🏼❤️”