Cameron Mathison and his estranged wife, Vanessa Mathison, are still “tight” despite their separation.
“Vanessa and I, we love each other,” Cameron, 55, exclusively told Us Weekly at Habitat for Humanity L.A.’s 2025 Builders Ball on Thursday, March 30. “We’re still super close.”
Cameron and Vanessa, 57, were married from 2002 to 2024, during which they welcomed daughter Leila and son Lucas. The now-exes announced in July 2024 that they separated after two decades of marriage.
“My wife and I had a beautiful 22-year relationship, and then things fell apart,” he recalled on Thursday.
While Cameron and Vanessa always planned to remain on good terms for the kids’ sake, their bond further strengthened after their once-shared Los Angeles residence was destroyed in the January wildfires.
“This house was so special to both of us even though we’ve been separated for a couple years now,” Cameron said on Thursday. “When couples kind of go through things, hopefully, your goal is to be close eventually, and support each other and forget about all the messiness and just be there for each other.”
He added, “In a way, this challenge and trauma brought us super close. It was a way to move on and be there for each other. She and I only really knew what each other were going through, so it was very valuable for both of us. I literally couldn’t have gone through this without her.”
The Hallmark actor further gushed that Vanessa was “unbelievable with the logistical stuff” following the natural disaster.
“She’s a genius. The emails and the lists and sitting and doing something for eight hours,” Cameron told Us. “My brain doesn’t work like that, but hers does, and she’s been amazing.”
Losing his family house was just one of the major “life challenges” that Cameron has faced in the past four years.
“I went through my own cancer journey, then my mom had cancer [and] she passed away. Then, the job that I had on Home and Family got canceled, and then COVID happened,” Cameron recalled. “Then my wife and I got separated and then my dog died and then my kids left to go to college in Europe and my house burned down. I lost everything that I owned. That was in four years.”
He continued, “We all have stuff. We all go through things. I think those are particularly large life challenges that all happened in a short period, but at the same time, I have learned that I can handle it, I’m a resilient person [and] I’m a positive person. I try my best, not always, but I try my best to use my challenges and difficulties to improve inner strength and development and to benefit others. I really try.”
While Cameron sometimes needs to “sit in [his] grief,” other times he tries to remember that all the hardships are a “part of life.”
“Each one of these things didn’t feel like reality was matching my own reality in a sense. What it’s taught me is that this is part of life,” he explained. “Things are going to happen to all of us. And I got it. I got this.”
Cameron also credited Habitat for Humanity with shifting his perspective after the devastating wildfires.
“They’re an amazing organization. They always are, and they always have been. I’m sort of on the one side of it, having lost my house and literally everything that I owned in the fires,” Cameron told Us. “They’ve helped me realize from an experiential point of view the impact of what they do. … It’s extremely meaningful to me to be able to use the grief and the loss and the devastation to help educate myself, increase my compassion and my efforts to benefit others.”
Reporting by Mike Vulpo
