Actor Cameron Mathison, known for his role on General Hospital, has entered a challenging phase in his life following a series of significant hurdles, ultimately resulting in the loss of his home to the destructive LA wildfires.
Mathison’s Pasadena home was gutted in the terrifying Eaton fire, one of many that tore through California back in January.
This event occurred only months after a surprising split from Vanessa Arevalo, from whom he is estranged and shares two children, Lucas, 22, and Lelia, 18. These challenges came on top of losing his mother, his pet dog, a job, and receiving a cancer diagnosis within the past four years.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, the 55-year-old All My Children actor expressed his feelings about losing his home, saying, ‘It’s a very unique death. You never anticipate losing the place where your children grew up, where you built your life. It’s a distinct type of loss that doesn’t feel real.’
‘It’s so much more emotionally challenging than people know. I’ve been through in the last four years, major, major life challenges. A life threatened and a cancer journey, and a loss of a parent, a shocking divorce. My dog died. I lost a job. My son went through something traumatic and now this.’
Mathison and Arevalo announced their separation in July, telling fans they had ‘made the difficult decision to part ways’ after 22 years of marriage.
General Hospital star Cameron Mathison revealed he is going through a new ‘forced chapter’ of his life after suffering a succession of ‘major, major life challenges’ including losing his home
‘It’s so much more emotionally challenging than people know,’ Mathison told the Daily Mail of losing his Pasadena home in the wildfires. ‘It’s a very unique death’
The fires came months after he announced his divorce from his now-estranged wife Vanessa Arevalo with whom he shares children Lelia, 18, and Lucas, 21 (pictured 2016)
It has been an emotionally tough five years for the former Hallmark Channel host who was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma – a type of kidney cancer – in 2019 and underwent surgery to remove a tumor. He is now cancer-free.
Months later his mom Loretta was diagnosed with brain cancer and died in 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
In August 2023 he announced the heartbreaking news that his beloved Doberman and ‘best bud’ Red had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma – a type of blood cancer. He died four months later in the December.
But Mathison, who has played Drew Cain on General Hospital since 2021, said the ‘trauma’ of losing his house hit differently because you ‘never expect’ to witness a family home burn down.
He said although it still feels ‘totally surreal’ four months on, he is embracing being at ‘ground zero’ and building up a new life and future.
‘There’s aspects of it being totally surreal still every day in this type of loss, you remember something else,’ he said. ‘Every day. Just the other day I remembered my Letterman jacket from high school. Every single piece of my kids’ lives. The Father’s Day cards. Mother’s Day is coming up. Twenty years of Mother’s Day cards for my ex.’
The actor, who was speaking at Thursday night’s NAMI 2025 Mental Health Gala, continued: ‘This is a real true forced new chapter of my life. I’m talking new underwear, new socks, new everything. I had to borrow this tie from General Hospital. I don’t have anything.
‘So, my marriage ended to me pretty shockingly. My kids moved out for college. My house burned down. So that’s all awful, of course. But also, it’s like I get to create this next chapter from ground zero. Well, that’s a weird word, from a level playing field.’
It has been an emotionally tough five years for the General Hospital star who was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma – a type of kidney cancer – in 2019 (pictured after surgery)
Months later his mom Loretta (pictured) was diagnosed with brain cancer and died in 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Then in December 2023 his beloved dog Red died from cancer
Mathison, who was speaking at the NAMI 2025 Mental Health Gala, said he is now embracing being at ‘ground zero’ and building up a new life and future
Earlier this week the Canadian actor and presenter revealed his beloved Mustang had survived the catastrophic inferno.
Celebrating the discovery on Instagram, he said: ‘Mustang somewhat survived the fire. It was one of the few things that survived, and this car is very, very important to me and the kids for different reasons.’
Mathison shared a series of heartbreaking posts as he returned to his home, now a pile of rubble, after the fires had subsided.
Speaking to Good Morning America at the time, he said: ‘I can’t sleep. I’ve lost my home and everything that I own … Every few minutes we’re thinking about things that were in there that are irreplaceable.’
He was also forced to warn fans of scammers who were pretending to be him on GoFundMe in a bid to profit off the fires.
‘PLEASE DO NOT DONATE TO A GO FUND ME PAGE using my videos or photos!!! It is not us. We are not asking for money,’ he wrote. ‘Unimaginable that someone is using this disaster to rip people off.’
