Camilla Row and Brennan Elliott. Photo:
Brennan Elliott/Instagram
Camilla Row, the wife of Hallmark star Brennan Elliott and a clinical psychologist, has died, the actor confirmed.
The Strong Medicine and UnREAL star, 49, shared a candid Instagram post on Saturday, March 22, in which he announced that Row had died at around 5:30 a.m. that same day.
“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,” he began his post, which features a photo of Row standing on the beach with a smile on her face. “She suffered immeasurably trying to survive and live with #stage4gastriccancer.”
“It is with a soul crushing devastated heart that my beloved wife #Cami passed away at 5:28 this morning,” Elliott continued in part. “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 pain she endured only I might know but assure all who loved her she is in peace with no more pain. You are with the lord now my queen!🙏🙏. You are free!” the actor wrote. “Heaven is a far better place with you in it my love. …What you did for the #gastriccancer community was immeasurable, but what you did for me as a man will last forever.”
Concluding his lengthy caption, Elliott wrote that anyone who had met his wife was “blessed because of her presence.”
“I love and am in love and will always be in love with you my baby!” he finished. “I know you are dancing and are on vacation in heaven and free from the grips of cancer. When the lord calls me and it’s my time I will see you in heaven and we will start dancing again!!🙏🙏 I will always be your hot mess!😂”
“Missing you on this plane forever but will see you soon!” he added. “THANK YOU Cami for being YOU!”
Prior to her death, Row shared an Instagram post on Jan. 11 on her private account updating her followers on her health. “One day at a time and I know God has a plan for me,” she wrote at the time. “A series of surgeries and hospitalizations have left me weak and out of treatment but I am thankful everyday of each second of life.”
“I am healing thanks to God,” she added. “I am so blessed to have all your prayers.”
Row was raised in California’s Orange County. A clinical psychologist, she married Elliott in September 2011. In an interview with City of Hope hospital in 2023, she said she met her husband at a gym. They shared two children, Luna and Liam.
Brennan first revealed in April 2022 that Row had been diagnosed with stage 4 gastric cancer.
Camilla Row and Brennan Elliott. Brennan Elliott/Instagram
In 2024, Row opened up to Orange Coast Magazine about the process of being diagnosed, telling the outlet: “I got my initial diagnosis in 2018, after two years of having reflux pain that wouldn’t go away.”
Although she had previously experienced heartburn during both of her pregnancies, the pain before her diagnosis was different. Finally, a doctor discovered what was wrong after performing an endoscopy.
“I was diagnosed with stage 1 cancer, and everyone said I was so lucky to have caught it early,” said Row, whose kids were 3 and 5 at the time. “All the doctors said, ‘We can cure you.’ So I went straight to surgery to remove my stomach along with 47 lymph nodes.”
Her medical team told her it was unlikely her cancer would recur. But in December 2021, a CT scan revealed masses on her ovaries, which originated from her stomach cancer. “I went from a stage 1 survivor to a stage 4 patient overnight. It was a lot to process. A lot of the data was suggesting that I had months to live. But I was not ready to die,” she told the magazine.
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Elliott spoke publicly about his wife’s cancer for the first time in April 2022, writing in part, “Those closest to me know that my wife Cami has had several bouts with cancer in the past but now she embarks on a new journey as a Stage IV metastatic gastric cancer patient.”
Row told Orange Coast Magazine that she originally kept her diagnosis private because she did not want it to affect her husband’s career, but when she was diagnosed with stage 4, she felt “a real duty” to advocate for stomach cancer patients.
Camilla Row and Brennan Elliott. Brennan Elliott/Instagram
“I didn’t want people to look at me as a sickly cancer patient, but now I feel like I am on a mission to spread awareness and hopefully be an example of a stage 4 patient who is thriving,” she told Hope for Stomach Cancer in 2022. Row, who was Korean American, also spoke to City of Hope about how stomach cancer rates are higher in South Korea and many other Asian countries.
Reflecting on the support the couple received after they shared the news, Elliott told PEOPLE in 2022, “We had like over a million people praying for her in like two days. It was just bananas. It’s a testament to the fans, the people that watch this channel and the people that are in the cancer community.”
“I think everybody’s been affected by [cancer],” he said. “It’s a dreadful disease and it’s something that’s obviously dear to my heart, cause obviously my wife’s gone through it.”
That October, Elliott also told PEOPLE, “She’s a warrior, and I’m not saying that just because I’m married to her. I’m saying that because it’s amazing to watch a woman fight. She fights for her kids. She fights for her family.”
Elliott shared in March 2023 that Row’s pathology results showed no signs of cancer. But in March 2024, according to Heavy, Row posted that her cancer had returned. That June, she underwent another surgery.
Elliott wrote in a post on the couple’s 12th wedding anniversary in 2023: “To say we have been thru many lifetimes together would be an understatement. 9/10/11 will always be THAT SPECIAL day! Before u i never knew what true love was. It’s more than a feeling, it’s a commitment to fight thru everything life throws at you and u never give up on love!”
“Being by your side going on life’s journey together has been the greatest gift and I would never want to be joined at the hip with anyone else,” he added.
Row is survived by her husband and children.
