James Van Der Beek’s Widow Feels ‘Blessed’ She Experienced Pregnancy Loss, Motherhood ‘With Him’

James Van Der Beek’s widow, Kimberly Van Der Beek, is still grateful the late actor was by her side when she suffered multiple pregnancy losses.

“I am so blessed I got to be married to this man and go through pregnancy loss and having babies with him 🥺,” Kimberly, 44, wrote via her Instagram Stories on Tuesday, June 9, alongside a link to James’ March 2023 appearance on her “Bathroom Confidential” podcast.

James and Kimberly welcomed six children, in addition to navigating multiple miscarriages through the years. (James and Kimberly shared daughters Olivia, Annabel, Emilia and Gwendolyn, as well as sons Joshua and Jeremiah.)

“It was just so much pain, and it was so unexpected because everything was right, everything was [a] fairy tale,” the Dawson’s Creek alum said during the 2023 podcast episode. “Everything was coming together perfectly. It progressed very quickly into being worried about Kim. We were both just crying and sobbing and there was a lot of blood. Way more blood than any delivery.”

At the time, James realized something was wrong when his wife said that she “felt off.”

“Kim lied down in the shower and then wasn’t waking up, so that’s when I called 911,” James tearfully recalled. “You were gone. The ambulance had taken you away. I got [our daughter] Gwen back to bed, and I’m just sitting there in a bathroom full of blood, and a dead little baby on the counter. It was just a gut punch, an emotional gut punch.”

James was competing on Dancing With the Stars season 28 at the time and announced the emotional news during the semi-finals.

“My wife, Kimberly, and I went through every expecting parent’s worst nightmare. We lost the baby,” he said during the 2019 live broadcast. “The little soul that we had expected to welcome into our family took a shortcut to whatever lies beyond. You never know why these things happen, that’s what I’ve been telling my kids. All you know is that it brings you closer together, it breaks you open, it opens your heart, it deepens your appreciation. It makes you more human.”

Kimberly suffered another pregnancy loss the next year.

“They were so tough. It’s so interesting that I was able to deliver four children at home without a problem, but [two] miscarriages at 17 weeks hospitalized me. One of them almost killed me,” she said during a 2020 livestream. “I was told I was going to have the miscarriage a few minutes before it happened. I was told I was going to have to go to the hospital a few minutes before they had to make the decision. After the fetus came out, I was told exactly where to bury it. … So, we have two fetuses in our mama plant. We named them John and Zachariah.”

Kimberly gave birth to the couple’s rainbow baby, son Jeremiah, in November 2021. Nearly five years later, James died in February after battling colorectal cancer. He was 48.