Katie Holmes Sparks Buzz: Her Unexpected Reaction to Joshua Jackson Comment

Katie Holmes recently delighted Dawson’s Creek fans by liking a comment about her and her former boyfriend, Joshua Jackson.

Both Holmes and Jackson, both 47, rose to fame as stars of the CW’s beloved teen drama. The duo dated in real life during the early seasons, sharing a year-long romance from 1998 to 1999. Holmes has candidly referred to Jackson as her “first love.”

Despite their split, the pair managed to maintain a strong friendship and professional relationship, continuing to work together on the series until it wrapped up in 2003.

In the later seasons of Dawson’s Creek, the characters played by Holmes and Jackson, Joey and Pacey, found themselves entangled in an onscreen romance that captured the audience’s imagination.

In an exciting development, Holmes has now written and directed a film titled Happy Hours, which reunites her with Jackson in what promises to be a heartwarming collaboration.

When she posted an Instagram shot of the two of them together promoting the film, a fan commented: ‘They should be a couple’ – earning a like from Holmes. 

Katie Holmes set hearts aflutter among the Dawson’s Creek fandom by liking a comment about her and her ex Joshua Jackson; the pair are pictured in a 2000 publicity still for the show

Holmes and Jackson were seen just last week linking arms at a New York City screening of the new documentary Brunello, The Gracious Visionary 

Holmes set off a round of plastic surgery speculation with her radiant complexion as she and Jackson swanned around the fete, glowing with bonhomie

Kimberly Van Der Beek, the widow of Dawson’s Creek leading man James Van Der Beek, also leapt into the comments to write: ‘Love this.’ 

Jackson and Holmes were seen just last week linking arms at a New York City screening of the new documentary Brunello, The Gracious Visionary, which centers on the Italian fashion designer Brunello Cucinelli.

Holmes set off a round of plastic surgery speculation with her radiant complexion as she and Jackson swanned around the fete, glowing with bonhomie. 

After her split from Jackson, Holmes had a whirlwind six-year marriage to Tom Cruise, by whom she welcomed her now 20-year-old daughter Suri.

Meanwhile Jackson had a high-profile relationship with Diane Kruger around the same time that Holmes and Cruise were together.

He later married Anne Boleyn actress Jodie Turner-Smith in 2019 and they welcomed their daughter Juno the following year before splitting in 2023.

Holmes raved about Jackson in 1998 when their romance was in its first blush and she was asked about the relationship in an interview with Rolling Stone. 

‘I fell in love, I had my first love, and it was something so incredible and indescribable that I will treasure it always,’ she said. ‘And that I feel so fortunate because he’s now one of my best friends. It’s weird, it’s almost like a Dawson-and-Joey type thing now.’

Now Holmes has written and directed a movie called Happy Hours, starring her alongside Jackson, whom she is pictured filming the project with in New York this past August

(from left) Michelle Williams, James Van Der Beek, Jackson, Holmes, Meredith Monroe and Kerr Smith are pictured in an early-2000s publicity still for Dawson’s Creek

Neither naming her boyfriend nor denying he was Jackson, she added that the man she was involved with had ‘been in the business so long’ and had consequently ‘really helped me. I respect him as a friend and a professional.’ 

Jackson confessed that ‘Katie and I did have a romance’ during an interview in 2006, three years after Dawson’s Creek aired its series finale.

‘Which is ancient history now, but I can’t tell you how much fun it is to have an actual romance, and then we broke up, and then a year later to have an onscreen romance,’ he shared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

He joked that ‘there’s nothing more fun than going to work with your ex-girlfriend everyday,’ adding: ‘Sorry, Katie, I love you, but it was a little difficult there for a while.’

While Joey and Pacey dated on the show, Jackson confessed he would occasionally be ‘reading the scripts’ and find himself thinking: ‘Did I say that to her? That’s not healthy. This shouldn’t be…oh my God.’

Last year Jackson surprised fans by remarking that ‘Katie and I are very close,’ during an appearance on the podcast Dinner’s On Me hosted by Jesse Tyler Ferguson. 

‘It’s not a daily call. Sometimes it’s not a weekly or monthly or even a half-yearly call,’ he acknowledged. ‘But when you’re together, A, there’s always that, like, I know you know. And B, there is, you know, these moments…,’ he tried to explain.

‘Like, these major moments in life are, like, other than your husband, there’s probably no other people in your life that you are that forged to. Because you had to go through good and bad, and happy and: “F*** you,” and: “Don’t talk to me,” and: “I love you.”‘