How Many Times Has Virgin River Star Tim Matheson Been Married?

Jeffrey Mayer/Getty Images By Lea B/Jan. 17, 2024 7:00 am EST

Tim Matheson has had a remarkable acting career that spans more than six decades. He is perhaps most widely known for playing Vice President John Hoynes in the 2000 NBC political drama "The West Wing" — a role for which he has earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series. Currently, he is part of the cast of the hit Netflix series "Virgin River" as Dr. Vernon Mullins, the trusted town physician and estranged husband of gossipy mayor Hope McCrea (Annette O'Toole). "It's been a rebirth for me," Matheson said of playing his character (via Military.com). "[Doc] is the voice of reason and counselor who helps people. It's a wonderful kind of world to be in [and play] a character who cares for people and wants to help them."

Unlike Mullins, Matheson's marriage to his real-life wife, Elizabeth Marighetto, has been going strong for several years now. He and Marighetto were first spotted together at the Annual Critic's Choice Awards red carpet in December 2016 (seen above). While not much is known about their relationship, Marighetto is said to be a script supervisor who has worked on numerous projects like "Blood Father" and "Future Man," according to her IMDb. They tied the knot in a civil ceremony in Los Angeles in March 2018, with Matheson sharing the milestone on Facebook. "Elizabeth Marighetto and I getting married!! March 10, 2018, Arts District, Los Angeles, CA. What a joyous day!" he wrote. Before Marighetto, Matheson had been married twice.

Inside Tim Matheson's past marriages

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Tim Matheson's first marriage was in 1968 to Canadian actor and real estate agent Jennifer Leak. The two first met on the set of the 1968 comedy film "Yours, Mine, and Ours" and soon developed a romantic relationship. Their marriage lasted just three years. Leak — who has also appeared on shows like "Hawaii Five-O" and "The Young and The Restless" during her career — retired from acting in the early 1990s. After splitting from Matheson, she said "I do" a second time to her architect husband James D'Auria in 1977. 

In 1985, 10 years after his marriage to Leak came to an end, Matheson remarried, this time to his second wife Megan Murphy. He and Murphy (seen above) were together for over 25 years and had three children before separating in 2010. Their eldest daughter, Molly, was born in 1986, while their youngest, Emma, was born in 1988. They then welcomed their son Cooper in 1993. In an interview with Military Families Magazine in 2022, Matheson opened up about his life following his separation from Murphy: "It was just so grueling, and there was a natural shift because my marriage ended, and all my kids were off to school. I had been living in Santa Barbara for 20 years... I moved back to LA and just started over." However, it appears he and Murphy have remained on good terms after their split. In 2016, the former couple came together to witness the wedding of their eldest daughter Molly to her husband Aaron in Mexico, as seen on Matheson's post on Facebook.

Tim Matheson is a proud father

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As mentioned, Tim Matheson is a proud dad of three children from his previous marriage to Megan Murphy. The actor, who is notoriously private about his personal life, has gushed about his kids in an interview for Life of Dad in 2021. "Well, we are worker bees and accomplishers," Matheson said, adding that Molly, Emma, and Cooper take after him when it comes to  having a strong work ethic. "I was making up a career every day. Until Hart of Dixie' I was a freelance actor. ... I had to go out and hustle an audition and go get a job," he explained. "So my kids have gained that kind of focus and goal-setting that I did."

Despite being away from home a lot to work on a show or a film project, Matheson has made it a point to always be present in his children's lives. "I would always try and be home on the weekends," he shared. "I would fly back from Vancouver or Toronto or wherever I was shooting. ... I was like a traveling salesman." It's clear that Matheson values his children more than anything else in life. Which is why it was hard for him when he and Murphy decided to call it quits back in 2010. "We sort of had a rule not to discuss the dirty linen with the children so that they could foster their relationship with [both of us]," he said. "I have stepped over the boundaries once or twice. If you do and make a crack, or have an emotional response to something, they will get caught in the middle."

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