Andrew Walker never acted alongside Candace Cameron Bure in a Hallmark movie, but he has thoughts on her controversial exit from the network.
“I think it was just a good excuse to cover up an opportunity she had somewhere else,” Walker, 44, told Vulture in an interview published on Tuesday, December 19. “Whether she thought she had it less at Hallmark because she’s an executive now over at Great American Family, I don’t know. That’s the way I took it.”
Walker’s longtime friend and fellow Three Wise Men and a Baby costar Tyler Hynes added his two cents about the topic, telling the outlet, “I can’t imagine how complicated or nuanced her relationship was or wasn’t. All I know is, for us, it’s very simple why we’re here. We know what we’re doing. I don’t want to speak for you guys, but I certainly know why I’m here.”
Walker chimed back in, saying, “That was the intention from the beginning. We want to see the same things you’re talking about — diversity of storytelling. Because things have to evolve.”
Cameron Bure, 47, raised eyebrows in April 2022 when she announced her departure from Hallmark after 13 years. She revealed at the time that she was moving to Great American Media, which former Hallmark CEO Bill Abbott created, and would have a more active role at the company and help “oversee and curate programming for the networks as a whole.”
While the move was surprising to fans, Cameron Bure made even more waves in November 2022 when she declared Hallmark has become “basically a completely different network” due to leadership changes. “I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core,” she told WSJ. Magazine at the time, referring to Great American Media’s main channel, and seemingly commenting on Hallmark’s same-sex story lines.
Cameron Bure later clarified via social media that she would never “intentionally want to offend or hurt anyone” and insisted she has “great love and affection for all people.”
While Walker and his Three Wise Men costars Hynes, 37, and Paul Campbell didn’t pretend to know Cameron Bure’s intentions with her statements, they stood by Hallmark and its leadership.
“Hallmark has created a culture that’s a trickle-down effect from the top. You get somebody like Lisa Hamilton at the top, who replaced Bill Abbott, who’s now making these choices that are affecting the network,” Walker explained on Tuesday. “The formula is pretty sound. I don’t think we need to sit here and go, ‘Oh, one network is better than the next.’”
Walker noted that even with some Hallmark stars moving exclusively to Great American Family, he doesn’t see it as competition. “I don’t know how our style gets duplicated somewhere else in quite the same way. It’s like comparing apples to oranges,” he said.
Campbell, 44, agreed, adding, “I think the word ‘competition’ implies there are viewers going elsewhere because somebody else is doing what Hallmark is doing. If you look at the numbers this season, viewership is up, so it’s a big playground. There’s a lot of space for people to produce and tell similar stories. But I don’t think there’s competition. Hallmark is the only place that does specifically what Hallmark does.”
Walker previously told Us Weekly in February that he is “honored” to be a part of the Hallmark family. “I think that’s something that Hallmark has really put forward is that they want to tell real stories about real people with that same, like, heart and warmth and familiarity that you get in a Hallmark movie,” he gushed. “I think that’s the beauty of working for this network. It’s just incredible what they’ve done so far.”
Hynes echoed Walker’s sentiments, exclusively telling Us in March, “Everybody is absolutely lovely. And it seems like comparatively perhaps to other places, I think it’s as close as you can come to feeling like a family that is supportive.”
