James Van Der Beek Speaks Well After Announcing His Cancer Diagnosis
James Van Der Beek broke his silence after announcing that he had been diagnosed with skin cancer.
Van Der Beek, 47, shared a slideshow via Instagram on Saturday, November 3, which featured several photos of Dawson's Creek alum set to Richard La ForgeAutumn Breeze song. Van Der Beek began his heartfelt caption with the words, “'Cancer…'”
“Each year, approximately two billion people worldwide receive this diagnosis. “And I am one of them,” wrote the actor. “There is no playbook on how [to] announce these things, but I had planned to talk about it for a long time People soon… to raise awareness and tell my own story. But that plan had to be changed early in the morning when I was told that the tabloid would have the news.”
Van Der Beek announced his cancer diagnosis in a short statement People Earlier on Sunday, he said at the time, “I was dealing with this very privately and I was taking steps to resolve it, with the support of my wonderful family. There is reason to be optimistic, and I feel good.”
In his Instagram post, Van Der Beek echoed this sentiment, writing, “I've been dealing with this in private so far, getting treatment and driving my life with more focus than ever. I am in a good place and I feel strong. It's been quite an initiation, and I'll tell you more when I'm ready.”
He continued, “I apologize to all the people in my life that I planned to tell. Nothing about this process happened in my preferred timeline… But we go with it, taking each surprise as a sign, pointing us to a greater destiny than we would have without God's intervention. Please know that my family and I deeply appreciate all the love and support.”
Concluding his snippet, Van Der Beek promised, “More to come…”
In his post, Van Der Beek tagged his wife Kimberly Van Der Beekmarried to him since 2010. James and Kimberly, 42, have six children together: Olivia, 13, Joshua, 12, Annabel, 10, Emilia, 7, Gwendolyn, 6, and Jeremiah, 2.
James Van Der Beek and wife Kimberly Van Der Beek (née Brook) have been single for over 10 years. The Dawson's Creek alum met Kimberly in 2009, less than a year after he finalized his divorce from ex-wife Heather McComb. “I was in Israel, on a trip with an organized group, when it hit me: […]
James has previously spoken about his parenting journey, speaking to himself Us Weekly in September 2020 on how the coronavirus pandemic has affected his perception of parenting.
“It's definitely learning to prioritize.” I think we have all discovered that we were all busy in the past with things that didn't help us and didn't make us happy,” said James. Us at that time. Now it's like, 'What is my life support?' [I realized] Most of the things I enjoyed doing were supported [on] some old idea of what I thought would be important to make me happy or someone else's hope or dream or hope.”
