Ledger Pop Journal - Celebrity News & Sports

Kirk Cameron, whose big-screen "Fireproof" is in its first week of release, notes that even his marriage can profit from the drama about a fireman who's a hero at work and a failure as a husband. Cameron has been married for 17 years to Chelsea Noble, whom he met when both were teenage co-stars on "Growing Pains."

Kirk Cameron Regrets Over Past Rifts in Real and Series Families (Image: Wenn)

His wife and their six kids come first in his life, but, he says, "There are challenges and struggles when work and even charitable causes become so overwhelming they displace your first love -- marriage and family. If you fail at that you fail at everything, and I can benefit from that lesson as much as anyone."


Kirk reveals that his parents' troubled marriage has served as an example of what not to do in his life. They were, he says, victims of "a lot of stress when I was working on 'Growing Pains' and my sister Candace was on 'Full House.' We tried to hide their problems from the public -- you know, kids in the limelight in a broken home -- but my parents finally broke up. They did eventually get back together, but it was tough on us all -- and something I would never want to put my wife and myself, and our children, through."


Cameron, who's specialized in faith-based films in recent years, and focuses much of his time on his "The Way of the Master" television show, looks back on his turbulent teenage years in the Hollywood fishbowl and recalls with regret that when he converted to Christianity at age 17 he alienated himself from Alan Thicke and the rest of the "Growing Pains" cast. He wanted material on the show changed to come closer to what, in his opinion, was more suitable for family audiences, and ended up causing, he says, "a lot of friction. I withdrew, I acted like a jerk, wanting control, and didn't handle things in the best way. Fortunately, I have had a chance to patch things up, but I'm just sorry they happened in the first place."