Milo Ventimiglia Chokes Back Tears While Touring Rubble Of Former Home

Upon arriving at the rubble where his home in Malibu used to stand during a CBS Evening News interview on Thursday, he described the feeling as “heavy.”

“Toast,” Ventimiglia told anchor Tony Dokoupil at his former residence.

“You start thinking about… man, it hits you so quick,” he added, choking back tears. “You start thinking about all the memories and the different parts of the house and whatnot, and then you see your neighbors’ houses and everything around and your heart just breaks.”

Ventimiglia toured the rubble, at one point noting, “Yeah, that’s the kitchen. These were stools.” He and his wife, Jarah Mariano, who is due to give birth to their first child any day now, evacuated on Tuesday — but watched their house burn down via security cameras.

“I think there’s a kind of shock moment where you’re going, ‘Oh, this is real, this is happening,’” Ventimiglia told Dokoupil. “And at a certain point, we just turned it off. What good is it to continue watching? We kind of accepted the loss.”

He said he and his wife had already bought a crib for their unborn child and had “the whole thing” set up when they were forced to flee. The fire became all the more surreal when Ventimiglia realized his character in “This Is Us” saw his own home burn down in the second season.

“You know, it’s not lost on me, life imitating art,” he said Thursday.

Dokoupil noted that Ventimiglia, who became a fire safety advocate after the 2018 episode aired, has now specifically turned his focus to wildfire safety. Before departing Thursday, the actor said that, ultimately, he isn’t mourning what’s most important to him above all else.

“We got good friends and we got good people we’re working with, and we’ll make do,” Ventimiglia told Dokoupil. “We’ll make do. Wife and baby and dog, most important.”