became emotional as he revealed his Malibu home was completely destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires – in eerily similar circumstances to his This Is Us character, Jack Pearson.
Ventimiglia, whose wife , 41, is nine months pregnant, visited the charred remains of what was once the couple’s home before it burned to the ground with CBS News on Thursday, January 9.
Speaking to CBS News as he inspected the damage, Ventimiglia, 47, admitted the loss felt “heavy.”
“You start thinking about all the memories in different parts of the house and what not and then you see your neighbor’s houses and everything kind of around and your heart just breaks,” he said.
The Gilmore Girls alum knew their house was no longer standing prior to the visit as he had watched it burn via home security cameras after being evacuated on Tuesday.
“It’s a kind of a shock moment where you go, this is real, this is happening and at a certain point you just turn it off,” he said. “What good is it to continue watching? We kind of accepted the loss.”
Coincidentally, one of Ventimiglia’s most famous characters, This Is Us’ Jack, died from smoke inhalation after a crock pot caused his family’s home to burn to the ground.
“You know, it’s not lost on me, life imitating art,” Ventimiglia told CBS News of the similarity between the fictional scenes and his real-life circumstances.
While Ventimiglia and Mariano lost most of their possessions in the fire, including a crib for their unborn baby due to be born any day now, the actor is grateful the most important things survived.
“We got good friends and we got good people we’re working with and we’ll make do. Wife and baby and dog, most important,” Ventimiglia said.
The couple, who were first linked in 2022 and wed in 2023, revealed in September 2024 that they were expecting their first child together.
“Baby on board!” Mariano wrote via an Instagram post at the time, sharing maternity photos while sitting on a surfboard.
Ventimiglia played Jack opposite Mandy Moore as his wife Rebecca Pearson in This Is Us, which ran from 2016 to 2022.
The actor revealed that Mariano had just recently started watching the emotional series during an appearance on the “That Was Us” podcast in October 2024.
“She can separate Jack from me, but she’s just a f—ing crier,” he said with a laugh. “It’s one of those things. She’s just crying and taking it in. I’m not badgering her; I’m not asking her, ‘Hey, so tell me about this character, this scene, tell me stuff.’ I’m waiting for her to want to talk to me about it.”
