The curse of Dawson's Creek: As Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson reunite on screen, how cancer, untimely deaths and personal battles have blighted the lives of the cast in the past 20 years

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

Peak Sunday morning viewing for angst-ridden adolescents of the noughties, Dawson's Creek changed the face of teen TV.
The opening scene of Katie Holmes' Joey Potter informing her childhood best friend Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek) that they can't continue their childhood sleepovers because of their 'emerging hormones' and 'sexual theoretics' set the tone.
Dawson, Joey, Pacey (Joshua Jackson) and Jen (Michelle Williams) filled six seasons with Kevin Williamson's long-winded dialogue, mature themes and a lot of tears - the Dawson crying meme has a lifelong spot in the pop culture hall of fame.
Over 128 episodes, which debuted in 1998, fans watched the foursome's Capeside escapades with the Dawson, Joey and Pacey love triangle becoming the core theme and fans divided into Team Dawson or Team Pacey.
The flash forward finale which aired in 2003 finally resolved the romance web as well as shocking fans with the death of Michelle Williams' character Jen.
Off screen the lives of the cast have seen just as much drama. Whilst the show shot many of them to international stardom, their personal lives have been blighted by health battles, high profile divorces and tragedy.
As Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson reunite to film a new romance project together, we look back on how the cast's lives have unfolded over the past 20 years.
James Van Der Beek
Playing the lead cemented James as a teen heartthrob, helped by his juggling of blockbuster roles in the likes of Varsity Blues and The Rules of Attraction during his years playing Dawson.
By the time the show ended James had also notched up the accolade of one of People Magazine's 50 most beautiful people.
By the late noughties though his star power had fizzled, and he took on small screen roles and parts in off-Broadway productions as well as a Dancing With The Stars appearance.
In recent years his personal life has seen him back in the headlines after he revealed in November 2024 that he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
In recent years his personal life has seen him back in the headlines after he revealed in November 2024 that he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer
The actor, 47, said he had been 'privately dealing with this diagnosis and has been taking steps to resolve it with the support' of his incredible family.
Following his diagnosis, Van Der Beek, who shares six children with his wife, Kimberly, has kept working whilst maintaining his family life at his Texas home, after moving away from Los Angeles in 2020.
Michelle Williams
Michelle, 44, played Jen Lindley, the NYC wildchild banished to Capeside to live with her grandmother.
Post-Dawson's Michelle has arguably had the most career success, earning four Oscar nods and winning two Golden Globes.
One of her most acclaimed big screen roles was in the 2004 movie Brokeback Mountain, where she also met her partner Heath Ledger.
The couple welcomed daughter Matilda in October 2005 before breaking up in 2007.
Three months later, Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose. He was just 28.
Michelle didn't comment publicly on Ledger's tragic death until 2016, instead quietly focusing on raising their daughter away from the limelight.
'In all honesty, for pretty much everything else, I feel like I'm a believer in not fighting circumstances, accepting where you are and where you've been. In pretty much all senses but one,' she told Porter magazine in 2016.
She added of her sense of loss for her daughter: 'I would be able to go totally down that line of thinking were it not for Matilda not having her dad. You know, that's just something that doesn't … I mean, it just won't ever be right.'
Joshua Jackson
Playing Dawson's best friend and the boy who would eventually win Joey Potter's heart, Joshua was the bad boy of Capeside.
After wrapping the show Josh, 47, went on to play more teen rebels in the likes of Cruel Intentions. More recently he has found renewed small screen success, playing the leads in TV series Fringe and Doctor Odyssey.
But like Pacey's messy romances, his personal life has been blighted by love woes.
The actor recently settled his divorce from Jodie Turner-Smith but the pair continue to be locked in a contentious legal battle over decisions about their daughter.
The actors were previously married for four years before their 2023 split and share one child, daughter Juno Rose Diana Jackson, whom they welcomed together in April 2020.
Meanwhile, earlier this year Joshua lost his $2M home in Topanga Canyon to the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
It was at that same house where the Doctor Odyssey star had previously spent his early childhood before moving back to Canada at the age of eight after his parents divorced.
He purchased the property over two decades ago and was living there with his four-year-old daughter.
Back in 2021, he spoke about purchasing the property where he previously lived as a young child in a sentimental, full circle moment.
'My father unfortunately was not a good father or a husband and exited the scene,' he told Mr Porter in July 2021. 'But that house in Topanga was where everything felt simple, so it was a very healing thing for me to do.'
He also revealed that after he and his then-wife welcomed Juno, his childhood bedroom became their daughter's room.
'There was a mural of a dragon on the wall in that room that I couldn't believe was still there, years later,' he said.
'The [previous] owner said, "I knew it meant a lot to somebody and that they were going to come back for it someday,' he added.
Katie Holmes
Katie, 46, was the epitome of girl next door, playing Joey Potter on the show. Joey's troubled family life made for some spicy storylines with her father in prison for drug trafficking before she was memorably robbed at gunpoint.
Offscreen, Katie's high profile marriage to Tom Cruise and subsequent divorce have overshadowed her career post-Dawson's.
It was in 2012, that Tom and Katie revealed they were divorcing after five years of marriage - marking one of the most high profile splits showbiz has ever seen.
For years the pair were deemed one of Hollywood's biggest couples, with Tom infamously declaring his love for Kate while jumping on a sofa during an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show.
The couple, married in 2006 in a Scientologist ceremony in Italy, just months after welcoming their daughter Suri, but things slowly crumbled, with sources claiming Katie felt intimidated by the Church and its influence.
In June 2012, it was reported that Katie decided to file for divorce in New York because it could potentially give her a better chance of gaining sole custody of Suri.
With sole custody of Suri, Holmes would be able to remove her daughter from the Church of Scientology, which she was alleged to dislike and distrust, despite her husband's enthusiasm for it.
On July 9 2012, Katie's lawyer confirmed her divorce with Tom had been settled, with Katie having been granted sole custody of Suri, who was six at the time.
The former couple reached an agreement out of court, meaning the actor's beloved Scientology was no longer at risk of scrutiny with the religion's secrets being dissected during a trial.
In 2017, she said that pivoting her career towards directing rather than acting was a deliberate move to be more present for Suri.
She previously described Suri growing up as 'heartbreaking', saying: 'You have to do everything you can to give them what they need—and then they're going to go. And that's going to be very, very sad for me.'
With Suri now enjoying life at college, Katie has a renewed focus on her work.
Following her split from Tom , the star received £10m - as well as a $38,000-a-year child support agreement.
Over the past 12 years, the star has received $400,000 for raising Suri alone - but is reportedly no longer entitled to child support now that their daughter is at college and a legal adult.
Happy Hours is her latest endeavour and sees Katie team up with Dawson's pal Joshua to portray former lovers who cross paths years later and rekindle their romance while navigating the challenges of careers and family responsibilities.
Katie wrote and stars in the trio of flicks, which will also mark her fourth, fifth, and sixth directorial features.
Obi Ndefo
Obi Ndefo played Katie Holmes ' character's brother-in-law Bodie Wells on Dawson's Creek.
The actor died in November 2024 at the age of 51, five years after losing both his legs in a horrific crash.
Ndefo, who is a graduate of Yale, appeared in Dawson's Creek between 1998 and 2002. He was seriously injured in an August 2019 hit-and-run crash. Surgeons were forced to amputate his legs - one was left completely shattered and the other partially severed.
He was loading a cooler in his trunk outside of an Erewhon Market on Beverly Boulevard when a drunk driver veered out of lane and struck him, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Ndefo's friends and family set up a GoFundMe account in the aftermath of the incident - and raised more than $290,000.
The page stated that the money would go towards 'new prosthetic legs, surgery and hospital costs not covered by insurance, and making Ndefo's home wheelchair accessible'.
Mary-Margaret Humes, who played Dawson's mom Gale Leery on the show, dedicated an Instagram post to Ndefo at the time of his death.
'These words don't come easy,' she said. 'It's hard for me to conceive that you have left us, my dear friend. You always were and always will be a bright shining light. What an example of pure unfiltered love and tenacity you set as you faced life's challenges of recent.
'I will cherish all of our messages of love and support to each other over the past few years. Rest in peace sweet warrior.'
Heidi Ferrer
Dawson's Creek writer Heidi Ferrer, 50, took her own life in 2021 at her home in Los Angeles following a 13 month battle with COVID-19.
She had been bedridden and riddled with excruciating pain since she contracted the virus in April 2020.
Her husband, director Nick Guthe, told CNN that it took months for doctors to diagnose her ailments and get a referral for a long-haul Covid clinic, which arrived a day before she died.
'She had indicated that if things got really bad she didn't know how she could continue, she didn't know how she could keep going, and I just kept saying, you know, "Just hang on, you know, just hang on, medical science is moving at the quickest rate it ever has,"' Guthe said.
'But I think she just felt that she was only going to diminish, she was going to lose the ability to walk, end up in a wheelchair, not be able to bathe herself.'
The mother-of-one suffered body aches, including severe pains in her feet and ankles, fatigue and flu-like symptoms when she tested positive for COVID in April 2020.
Her symptoms worsened, and by June she was bedridden. Over the following months, Ferrer's fatigue and foot pain remained but she also became crippled with neurological tremors.