Two months after Hallmark Channel actor and “Hudson & Rex” star John Reardon publicly revealed his battle with tonsil cancer, he’s opening up about his challenging 2024, from his cancer journey to losing his beloved canine co-star.
In a conversation with podcaster Adam Lupis — released on February 21, 2025 — Reardon shared that he’s beginning to feel better. That’s allowing him to focus his energy on his wife and “Believe in Christmas” co-star, Hallmark’s Meghan Ory, their three kids, and moving forward with renovating their 120-year-old Canadian home while sharing the process in a YouTube series.
“You know, it’s been a tough, tough six months getting through and everything,” Reardon told Lupis, “but fortunately (a) good outcome. You know, I kind of wondered why I hadn’t been feeling well for a few years, and I think that probably was why. And actually, I feel probably better now than I have for a while.”
John Reardon Says He Focused on Family & Friends Through Cancer Treatment
Reardon disclosed his cancer battle on Christmas Eve 2024, sharing the news in a joint social media post with Ory that featured two photos — one of him looking strong and healthy from the previous night and another of him undergoing treatment.
“Last night was my first night out after my recovery from tonsil cancer,” he wrote in the post. “Has been a long road between these two pictures and the difference is from the love and support I received from my people in my life.”
Though Reardon has not specifically shared what his treatment entailed, he excitedly shared in early February that his oncologist had cleared him to work again and that he was “cancer-free.”
But work wasn’t top-of-mind for Reardon when he first received his diagnosis, he told Lupis. Rather, he said he was hyper-focused on what his family needed to keep thriving and noticing the “little things” he’d been too busy to fully appreciate before.
“I think that was the biggest thing,” he said. “As soon as I had sort of, you know, discovered what … was going on, I don’t even really think that I kind of thought about the, you know, the repercussions for myself. The beginning part was, you know, getting stuff taken care of for (my family).”
“But as the process went on, (I was) appreciating things that we have in our day to day that we often just kind of brush over,” Reardon continued. “Family, obviously. Friends…you know, the connections that you care about, and the people who are there and support you.”
“And then little things too,” Reardon recalled. “I watched a ton of movies, not really through the process, but more after the process and (during) recovery … the things that you enjoy in life become a little bit more obvious. And the things that aren’t worth the time become become obvious, too.”
John Reardon Considered Diesel His Castmate & Says They Had a Special Bond
GettyWhile battling cancer, Reardon was also dealing with the unexpected death of his longtime “Hudson & Rex” co-star, a German shepherd named Diesel vom Burgimwald. Diesel played police dog Rex on the popular Canadian show, which airs on UPtv in the U.S.
Diesel was just eight years old when he died, weeks after suffering a ruptured spleen, trainer Sherri Davis told the Toronto Star on February 21. He had already filmed the first few episodes of the seventh season, the outlet reported, but the cast and crew kept his death quiet, using Diesel’s nephews as stand-ins.
Six months later, as the new dogs began to appear on the show instead of Diesel, viewers began to notice subtle differences. As social media buzz built up about what happened to the original “Rex,” Davis confirmed to People on February 11 that Diesel had died.
Reardon told Lupis during his podcast interview that everyone who works on the show was “heartbroken,” and that he had forged a deep bond with Diesel.
“We spent a lot of time together,” he said, adding that they developed a bond quickly and that he considered him his fellow castmate.
“That bond evolved as as time went on and we really started to know what each other needed to do or was trying to do when we were filming scenes,” Reardon explained. “We kind of could intuit each other quite well over the years … and I think a lot of the the great times that we spent together were just when we were just sitting around.”
“I always get amazed when people question an animal’s capacity for understanding and communicating, because it’s just different,” Reardon said of his ability to connect with Diesel. “But they’re equally as sophisticated as we are. They speak different language. They speak, you know, with their body a lot, and they speak with their energy and their breath and their affection and so many different things. And I think it’s really just getting in tune with that.”
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John Reardon Bravely Opens Up About Fighting Cancer & Losing Co-Star: ‘Been a Tough 6 Months’