Dawson’s Creek actor James Van Der Beek is battling cancer.
The actor has been diagnosed with colorectal cancer, a cancer that starts in the colon or rectum. The 47-year-old actor is reportedly getting treatment for the same.
Speaking to PEOPLE, Van Der Been said, “I have colorectal cancer. I’ve been privately dealing with this diagnosis, and have been taking steps to resolve it, with the support of my incredible family.” He added, “There’s reason for optimism, and I’m feeling good.”
Following the announcement, James shared a lengthy post on Instagram explaining that he didn’t expect the news to be made public so suddenly. He wrote, “There’s no playbook for how [to] announce these things, but I’d planned on talking about it at length with People magazine at some point soon… to raise awareness and tell my story on my own terms.”
“But that plan had to be altered early this morning when I was informed that a tabloid was going to run with the news,” he concluded.
James Van Der Beek
James Van Der Beek is best known for his role in Dawson’s Creek. The actor is married to Kimberly Van Der Beek and the two are parents to six children, Olivia, 13, Joshua, 12, Annabel, 10, Emilia, 7, Gwendolyn, 6, and Jeremiah, 2. In 2020, the family left Los Angeles and moved to Austin, Texas.
James is pretty active on social media. The two-time MTV Movie Award winner recently posted how the family celebrated Halloween recently. He posted a carousel on Instagram of him and his family. He captioned the post, “I made all my own costumes growing up. Didn’t really have a choice. But I loved it. Should probably have been the first warning sign to my parents that I would end up an actor.”