Happy anniversary to James Van Der Beek and his wife, Kimberly. The couple marked 10 years of marriage on Saturday, and James celebrated with a heartfelt post reflecting on their relationship.
“Ten years ago today this woman made me the happiest I’d ever been,” he began a lengthy note on Instagram. “A year prior to that, I’d been famous, been wealthy, been married, been divorced, been less-than-wealthy, been single… and I was in Israel, on a trip with an organized group, when it hit me: I was done being single. I wanted a real relationship. A soul mate. Someone with whom I could build a family.”
“I was mid-revelation, rattling all this off to a friend of mine when a voice interrupted us, wanting to ask him a question. I was annoyed. Who the hell was stepping all over my moment? I turned around… it was @vanderkimberly,” James recalled. “Three days later, I asked her what she was looking for in a relationship. Her answer: ‘I’m not looking for a relationship.’ Six months later we were living together. Two weeks after that we were pregnant, and almost exactly one year to the date after she’d first interrupted me (on the spot where we’re standing in the last pic)… we were married.”
The Dawson’s Creek star said his marriage to Kimberly “has demanded I be more present, more honest, more authentic, more open, more patient, more passionate, daring, capable, fun, and vulnerable than I’ve ever been.”
“I’m still earning her,” he wrote. “We’ve been through joy and pain and everything in between, and even at the height of our most impassioned arguments… she’s who I want by my side. Kimberly, you astound me. Your bravery, your tenderness, and your unwillingness to settle for anything less than what can and ought to be…. You’re the best human I know. I love you, and I look forward to earning your partnership for years to come. (And also that huge party/vow renewal in the woods I’ve been promising you for ten years – once we’re out of pandemic protocol ?) Happy anniversary babe ❤️.”
Kimberly shared a short-but-sweet post in honor of her and James’ anniversary. “Life with you has been a beautiful and adventurous tale of love, strength, vulnerability and magic,” she captioned a romantic shot of them cuddled up together. “I feel like the luckiest woman in the world. Happy anniversary. ?.”
James and Kimberly share five children: Olivia, 9, Joshua, 8, Annabel, 6, Emilia, 4, and Gwendolyn, 2. In June, James revealed that Kimberly had suffered a miscarriage at 17 weeks, the same point in her pregnancy as the last time she miscarried, in November 2019.
The actor shared on Instagram that amid all going on in the world, he knows people are in pain. “There are no words to ease that pain… to make the process hurt less or to solve it quickly,” he said. “But the way out of it? Starts with an open, broken-hearted contemplation of this question: How can we take better care of each other?”
James concluded his post by letting “all the families who have gone through this” know that they are not alone.
