Jack Wagner Says He’s Learned to ‘Let Go’ of Things (Exclusive)

Jack Wagner has found a sense of calm after decades of experience in and out of Hollywood.

The When Calls the Heart star, 64, tells PEOPLE he’s grown wiser as he’s gotten older and is now able to “let go” of things in his life that may have bothered him in the past.   

“I’m able to let go of things I used to attach to, obsess about and that disturbed me,” he says, adding, “And the things that I think our ego attaches to, we are able to put in proper perspective. That’s what age has given me.”

Wagner moved to Los Angeles in 1982 to pursue acting landed his breakout role just two years later on General Hospital, playing Frisco Jones, a spy luckier at work than in love. He says being on the soap opera in those early years was surreal.

“It was crazy, because back then, people would join fan clubs, and there would be bags and bags of fan letters,” he recalls.

The frenzy proved a boon for Wagner’s budding music career with the performer going on to release six albums and a Top 10 single, “All I Need” (which he sang in character on General Hospital before it became a hit.) “I would sell out concerts in an hour or two,” he recalls.

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If the Melrose Place alum has any regrets, it may be not having released the poignant ballad “Lady of My Heart,” cowritten by David Foster, as his second single in 1985 instead of the more uptempo track “Premonition.”

“I didn’t want to be labeled a balladeer,” Wagner admits. “I wanted to be a rocker. I’m from Missouri. I love Southern Rock and Roll. And had I released that single, I would’ve probably had a follow-up number one record, because it was just a massive song that people still love to this day.”

Wagner lost his son Harrison, who died in June 2022 at age 27 from an accidental drug overdose. Harrison’s death led Jack and his ex-wife and former General Hospital costar Kristina Wagner Harrison’s death to found the Harrison Wagner Scholarship Fund to honor him by making a meaningful impact on others. (The former couple also share a son, Peter, and he has a daughter, Kerry, from a previous relationship.)

“We’ve helped countless young addicts who desperately need the the treatment and recovery,” he says. “It’s about accountability and learning how to live life drug-free.”

In reflecting further on a life well-lived, Wagner circles back to the notion of “letting go” and achieving personal and spiritual growth.

“I can get into the present moment, center myself and to ask an old phrase, how important is it?” he continues. “Now I’m able to witness that and just sort of be the witness and be wise….How can I witness this, slowly let it go and release it? That is what real personal and spiritual growth is about, in my opinion. That’s how we heal. I would call it healing. And that’s what the 60s has given me, to be able to heal what I was unconscious of.”

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When Calls the Heart airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on the Hallmark Channel.