‘Dawson’s Creek’ star details James Van Der Beek, Joshua Jackson, Katie Holmes’ bitter love triangle fallout: ‘They didn’t interact’

Kerr Smith says James Van Der Beek and Joshua Jackson stopped speaking after a complicated relationship involving their “Dawson’s Creek” co-star Katie Holmes. In his memoir, he describes the tension as an open secret on set, adding context to the real-life overlap between the actors’ off-screen relationships and the love triangle played by their characters.

Smith says that when he joined the show in 1998, Van Der Beek and Jackson were no longer close: he could not recall seeing them talk, and says they did not socialise or interact off set. Holmes and Jackson dated from 1998 to 1999, while neither Holmes nor Van Der Beek confirmed a romance; Van Der Beek gave an evasive answer when asked in 2024. Jackson later said the cast had fallen out of touch for years, but Van Der Beek’s cancer diagnosis brought them back together.