EXCLUSIVE General Hospital star reveals harrowing 'trauma' after multiple family tragedies and says he's lost everything after LA fires
Mathison's Pasadena home was gutted in the terrifying Eaton fire, one of many that tore through California back in January.
It came months after his 'shocking' divorce from his now-estranged wife Vanessa Arevalo, with whom he has children Lucas, 22, and Lelia, 18, and within four years of losing his mother, his dog, a job and being diagnosed with cancer.
Reflecting on losing his home, the All My Children star, 55, told the Daily Mail: 'It's a very unique death. You never expect your children's home, the home that you raised your life in, everything. You never expect that. It really is a unique 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.
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.'
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.'
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