Erik Valdez assured fans he’s okay after posting photos from his trip to the emergency room on September 3, 2026. The “General Hospital” alum, who last appeared in Hallmark’s 2025 rom-com “Journey to You” with Erin Cahill, had fans worried after sharing a pic in his Instagram Stories of the ER and writing, “Not really how I wanted to start my day.”
Valdez, who starred as Kyle Cushing on The CW’s “Superman & Lois” from 2021 to 2024, then shared a selfie from his ER room, wearing a hospital gown, and wrote over the pic, “Late 40s are off to a banger start!” He added with an asterisk, “I’m okay … just decided to start listening to my body more and rule things out before they get the best of me.”
Erik Valdez Explains ER Visit in Video & Thanks Fans For Their ‘Concern’
HallmarkHours after posting his photos from the hospital, Valdez, who turned 47 on August 26, posted a follow-up video to his Instagram Stories, letting fans know he was okay and why he chose to share.
“Hey, y’all, just wanted to come on here real quick, and first of all, say thank you,” he said from the driver’s seat of a car. “I had a lot of people, lots and lots of people, reach out to me after my post this morning. Thank you for your concern.”
“I didn’t mean to alarm anybody,” Valdez continued. “I wasn’t trying to get attention or anything like that. It was more of, like, supposed to be a light-hearted look into (the) late 40s, now that I’m 47, as of last week. I was having some chest pains, got some tests. All is clear.”
He further explained, “Now that I’m older, just trying to take my health seriously and go check on things when my body’s talking to me. So, anyway, I’m good as of now. Tests are clear. Just wanted to clarify that. And again, say thank you to everybody who sent me messages and stuff today showing your concern. Really means a lot. Didn’t expect all that, but thank you so much.”
“Wanted to come on here before I call it a night and put a, kind of, clarification out to the masses,” Valdez concluded. “So, hope y’all are well. Talk to you again soon!”
Erik Valdez is Racing Into His Next Chapter
As Valdez embraces his “late 40s,” he’s racing into a new chapter of his life by fully embracing his lifelong love of cars and sharing that passion with his son Enzo, whom he shares with his wife of a decade, Candice Lopez. The actor co-hosted the Cars & Kicks podcast in 2025 for car and sneaker enthusiasts, and regularly posts videos from his family adventures.
On August 31, he shared a video from a day spent watching races at a kart track with his Enzo, and wrote in the lengthy caption, “On the way out, he asked if we could take the new truck off road…of course I obliged. We found a spot not too far off the highway where there was a solid mixture of dirt, gravel, and wildflowers.”
He continued, “‘Dad, that’s the perfect spot,’ he yelled. In my mind, it was indeed a nice place to park and maybe snap some pics at golden hour. His 8 yr old mind saw something different. When we parked, he immediately asked if he could get out of the truck, grabbed a couple of his cars, and proceeded to spend the next 15 mins living in his own little world. There’s something so pure about this age.”
Grateful that he had his camera along, he wrote, “An otherwise blip in time is seared in my mind. And through the art of cinema, I get to re-live it over and over again.”
