The Family of Days of Our Lives’ Drake Hogestyn Celebrates the ‘Most Amazing Husband, Father, Papa… ’
If you’ve read through the beautiful tributes that the Days of Our Lives cast has written for Drake Hogestyn — and if you haven’t, you can do so here — you know that if there was one thing he was more passionate about than playing the soap’s Sturm und Drang, it was his own nearest and dearest. “My heart breaks for his family,” said Alison Sweeney, Sami to Hogestyn’s John. “They meant everything to him.”
Arianne Zucker (ex-Nicole) noted that the actor “loved speaking to every single fan of the show… in length, but his wife was his love. Victoria and of course his children and grandbabies was his purpose!” Added Tamara Braun (Ava): “Oh, how you loved your family so deeply! I loved to watch your face light up while speaking about your wife, kids and grandkids. You beamed.”
The Love of His Life
Hogestyn married the former Victoria Post in 1986, the same year that Days of Our Lives made him a Pawn on the Salem chessboard. Together, they had four children, three daughters — Whitney, Alexandra and Rachael — and one son, Ben. As they grew up and moved out, Dad and Mom leaned into being empty-nesters, Hogestyn told Soap Opera Digest in 2023. “Victoria will watch Hallmark movies where they always kiss at the end, and I will watch a baseball game upstairs. We don’t have a Smart TV. We don’t have a million channels. And now you have to buy everything, if you want something.
“I don’t get it. I don’t need it,” he added. “I’d rather read a book. And Victoria and I walk around the beach. It’s really cool.”
That’s Whitney and Alexandra with Mom and Dad in 2010.
A Precious Legacy
Though the Hogestyn kids are all married, the family remained “so tight,” said Drake. “I’m so proud of that. It’s all because of Victoria. She’s so articulate and what she says resonates with everybody. She’s been such a great mother to all the kids. They hang on every one of her words. She talks to them all day long, and all four kids are always texting each other.”
If Ben looks especially familiar, it may be because you recall that in the mid-2000s, he joined Dad in daytime, tackling the role of Lucas on General Hospital (which has just been recast yet again) and Harry on The Bold and the Beautiful. (That’s him with leading lady Mackenzie Mauzy as Phoebe below.) Today, he’s wed to fellow soap alum Danica Stewart (ex-Maxie, General Hospital) and runs a company that makes leather handbags.
Grace Under Pressure
In disclosing that the “most amazing husband, father, papa and actor” had died a day before his 71st birthday, his family said that the former baseball player “was thrown the curve ball of his life when he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but he faced the challenge with incredible strength and determination. After putting up an unbelievable fight, he passed peacefully surrounded by loved ones.”
Revisit highlights of Hogestyn’s epic run on Days of Our Lives with the below photo gallery of John Black’s romances and adventures.
