The photo that stays with you isn't from a red carpet or a studio lot. It's a slightly chaotic family shot: six kids, one not quite looking at the camera, another mid‑laugh, James Van Der Beek somewhere in the middle, visibly more dad than teen idol.
For anyone who still thinks of him frozen in time onDawson's Creek— the over‑earnest boy with the camcorder and the catastrophic fringe — that image is a jolt. WhateverHollywoodonce wanted him to be, James Van Der Beek built something much larger and infinitely messier: a tribe.
And that, more than any meme of his famous crying face, is the real answer to the question: who are James Van Der Beek's kids?
Van Der Beek and his wife, Kimberly, have six children: Olivia, Joshua, Annabel, Emilia, Gwendolyn and Jeremiah. Even saying the list out loud feels slightly improbable in an industry built around personal trainers and carefully limited responsibilities.
'I think fatherhood changes you from the inside out,' he toldPeopleback in 2013, when he was still only a dad of one. The price, he said, was a total loss of free time. The trade‑off? He didn't hesitate: worth it.
Kimberly was blunter about what a large family does to a marriage. By 2019, with five children under their roof, she admitted that alone time had largely evaporated. 'Now, date nights are on the couch ordering in and snuggling up,' she said. It was not glamorous, but it was honest — which, to be fair, has always been the Van Der Beek brand.
The couple's story starts a long way fromLos Angeles. They met inIsraelin July 2009, fell for each other under an olive tree they both still talk about, and quietly married there a year later in a small, spiritual ceremony. Their first child, Olivia, arrived in September 2010. Joshua followed in 2012, then Annabel in 2014, Emilia in 2016, Gwendolyn in 2018 and finally Jeremiah in 2021, born on their ranch in Texas after a bruising run of late‑term miscarriages.
'We have watched our lives change with each kid,' James said later. 'We've watched opportunities grow, and we've seen the positive effect it's had on our other kids. And the added love brought into the house lights everybody up in a way that is kind of undeniable.' It is the sort of thing you expect from a parenting manual, except he plainly meant it.
What is striking, trawling through their interviews and social media, is how determined he was not to present his children as cute accessories. Each has a story, a quirk, a moment where their dad clearly stood back in amazement.
Olivia, now 15, is the one who made him feel old via the internet. She was born in Los Angeles on 25 September 2010, her name chosen only after her parents saw her. 'She looked like an Olivia,' James said — and there was, of course, that olive tree in Israel that meant so much to them.
Source: International Business Times UK
