Actor David Charvet Left Hollywood to Raise His Kids (Exclusive)

Following memorable roles on Baywatch and Melrose Place, David Charvet left Hollywood nearly two decades ago, but he still has fond memories of his time in the spotlight.

“I miss the camaraderie that I had with the people on the sets. I had old-school producers and old-school people that worked as a unit, and it was a real family,” Charvet, 53, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I don’t miss the fame. I don’t miss the workload that we had because we used to work a lot, and it’s very hard to raise a family that way. I commend all of the actors who have families that are able to balance that.”

When the ‘90s heartthrob and his then-wife, Brooke Burke, started having children, he knew his personal and professional lives would change. Wanting to be a present father to his kids, Heaven Rain, now 18, and Shaya Braven, now 17, the French-born actor stepped away from Hollywood and shifted his focus to construction. In 2008, he and a business partner started Jones Builders Group, which primarily builds luxury homes in the Los Angeles area. 

“It was one way for me to leave Hollywood and to still be creative,” he says of his construction life. “It was also one way for me to ensure that I would be home every morning and home every night so that I could raise my two children.”

At the time, Charvet noticed that more and more films and TV shows were being made outside of Los Angeles, and he knew that staying in entertainment would contrast with the parent he wanted and vowed to be. 

“The goal was when I got my children, when they were born, was that I was going to be hands-on. I promised Brooke that I would be that man,” he shares. 

In 2018, Charvet and Burke announced that their seven-year marriage was ending, and their divorce was finalized in 2020. 

Via his construction company, Charvet’s fingerprints are all over Los Angeles, and his presence is getting larger, as he and Jones Builders have partnered with the burgeoning fitness studio Burn LA and owner Maria Chase to help disrupt the workout space. 

“I believe in her product, and what made me kind of jump on board is that this woman has an idea that she wants to change a person at a time,” he says. “She’s not doing it for the money. She’s proven that her workout and her science behind the workout are truly working on people. She’s created this incredible method with weights and bands and different little apparatuses that she has in the studio, which makes it a complete workout, but I think that the science behind it is what sets us apart from others.”

With three locations open and a fourth on the way, Burn is rapidly expanding, and there are plans to take it eastward to Miami and New York City. 

“I’m learning more today than I ever thought I would ever learn, and it’s incredible because this new little baby of ours, Burn, is flourishing in such an incredible way, and you have to protect it every day, and you have to also grow it every day,” he says. “So, how do you scale without compromising hospitality and all of the important features that it has? That’s the next step.”

And no, he has no regrets about leaving Hollywood behind.

“I wouldn’t change anything,” he says. “I have to say that what I’ve experienced with my kids and what I’ve experienced in the last 17 years has definitely made me a better man, has made me understand what it is to have real relationships and be able to treat people kindly and have more of a humble approach in life.”