Hallmark Star Returns to the Screen After Wife’s Death

Published: July 1, 2026

By Kayla DeKraker

Hallmark actor Brennan Elliott opened up about how he’s grieved his wife Camilla, who died last year after a battle with gastric cancer.

“I was stuck also,” he told PEOPLE, referencing his character in his newest Hallmark movie. “It’s tough to move forward when certain things happen to you, but you’ve got to keep plugging away. I feel like this is the next chapter of my life.”

He continued, “We miss her, but she was in so much pain. She’s at peace now, and we’ve had to rebuild. Grief doesn’t have to be scary. Yes, it’s painful, but it’s really taught me a lot about a lot of things that I wouldn’t have ever learned if I didn’t go through it.”

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Camilla died on March 22, 2025, after a nine-year battle with gastric or stomach cancer.

“There is no easy way to say this but I know my wife @camilla_row would have wanted me to thank every person from all over the world who prayed for her over the last 8 years she suffered immeasurably trying to survive and live with #stage4gastriccancer,” Elliott posted on the day she died.

He added, “Our babies and I lost our rock, a person who not only was the love of my life, my soulmate, my best friend and lover but the toughest strongest fearless person I have ever met in my life and the greatest mother to her babies.”

The Cleveland Clinic explained, “With stomach cancer, also called gastric cancer, cancer cells usually begin in the inner lining of your stomach. They then grow deeper into your stomach walls as the cancer develops.”

The couple shared two children, Luna and Liam.

As Elliott faced the deep grief of losing his wife of 14 years, he sought therapy to help.

“I couldn’t handle it. Through therapy, I’m realizing I just needed to heal,” he admitted. “I needed to spend some quiet time letting myself feel all the feelings I was feeling. To sit and channel those feelings and talk about them is impossible until you’re calm and grounded. That happened for me in probably February this year. So that’s almost 11 months of a tough grind…And I feel like I’m starting to live again.”

He described himself as living in “survival” mode while his wife was sick.

“For a lot of the time I was working while Cami was sick, it was a state of survival,” he told PEOPLE. “I was much more, ‘Let’s get this and let’s do this, let’s make it good, and I’ve got to call her and make sure she’s okay.’ I’d go film a movie or I’d do a TV series, and I’d make money and take care of her and take her to chemo.”

He added, “My wife didn’t want to have to have me do it anymore. She was the one that was like, ‘I need to get out of this. This is terrible for me and you.'”

Now, Elliott has made peace with the process of grief.

“There’s nothing wrong with that guy and there’s nothing wrong with the guy I am now,” he said. “I’ve gone through the stages of grief. I’ll always grieve her. I mean, she was my wife, the love my life, the mother of my children, but I can hear her in my head telling me, ‘This is when your career’s going to go and you’re really going to be happy and fun.’ …Now I’m coming to set as a blank canvas. I’m really embracing and enjoying the process and the journey.”

Elliott’s new Hallmark movie, A CASTLE OF OUR OWN, debuted on June 27.

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