Rachael Leigh Cook Explains Her Initial 'Resistance' to Working With Hallmark

Rachael Leigh Cook has been one of Hallmark's leading ladies since 2016 - but she almost didn't sign on with the network after questioning her personal brand.

"I really credit the Hallmark Channel with my pivoting into producing in earnest," Cook, 46, said during the May 13 episode of the "I Love You So Much - ILYSM" podcast.

The actress noted that she began working for them a decade ago, but she "wasn't sure how that was going to go."

"One disagreement Daniel [Gillies], my ex-husband, and I always had was he was like, ‘You can't handle challenging content!' And I was like, ‘That's not true!' That was 100 percent true. Daniel, you win," Cook recalled, noting that her so-called brand and aversion to darker story lines almost made her pass on Hallmark's offer.

Cook confessed, "I cannot handle channeling content, so my resistance to working for the Hallmark Channel - is that I thought it was a little bit too soft."

She remembered thinking, "It was sort of playing into my fears that I had about myself. Then I was just like, ‘Ah, screw it. This is who I am.' I'm a huge cornball. I love love."

Cook made her Hallmark Channel debut in 2016's Summer Love. That same year she portrayed Frankie Baldwin alongside Brendan Penny's Nate Deluca in Autumn in the Vineyard.

The actors' connection sparked two more In the Vineyard movies and made Cook a staple for the network. Autumn in the Vineyard was also Cook's first credit as an executive producer for Hallmark and she has since worked behind the scenes on multiple projects for them.

Cook most recently was a producer on her 2025 Hallmark hit Sisterhood, Inc. and starred in 2026's Caught by Love.

Her connection to Hallmark has also led Cook to her own real-life romance with Brandon Routh.

Following her 2019 divorce from Gillies - with whom she shares daughter Charlotte and son Theodore - Cook started dating Routh, 46, in 2025. Both Cook and Routh are Hallmark stars, with Routh making his network debut in 2014's The Nine Lives of Christmas.

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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 2:12 PM.