James Van Der Beek’s wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, is showing her support after the actor revealed he’s been diagnosed with colorectal cancer and issued a public apology to his loved ones after claiming he was forced to disclose his private health battle.
The “Dawson’s Creek” star, 47, shared the news with People on Sunday before disclosing to his social media followers why he made the announcement now.
“’It is cancer…’” Van Der Beek’s Instagram post began.
“Each year, approximately 2 billion people around the world receive this diagnosis. And I’m one of them. There’s no playbook for how 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 explained.
The former WB heartthrob shared that he’d been dealing with his diagnosis while undergoing treatment “privately until now.”
Van Der Beek is keeping a positive outlook on the future.
“I’m in a good place and feeling strong. It’s been quite the initiation, and I’ll tell you more when I’m ready,” he wrote before issuing his apology.
“Apologies to all the people in my life who I’d planned on telling myself. Nothing about this process has occurred on my preferred timeline,” Van Der Beek said. “But we roll with it, taking each surprise as a signpost, pointing us toward a greater destiny than we would have discovered without divine intervention.”
He concluded, “Please know that my family and I deeply appreciate all the love and support.”
Kimberly commented on her husband’s post, writing, “I love you baby ♥️”
Colorectal cancer develops from growths in the colon’s inner lining, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Symptoms can include include abdominal pain, bloated stomach, unexplained weight loss, vomiting, blood in the stool and change in bowel habits.
Days before his cancer announcement, Kimberly shared a throwback photo with her husband and wrote, “We were babies. So much life lived since then. Grateful for it all.”
Van Der Beek and Kimberly married in 2010 and have six children: Olivia, 14, Joshua, 12, Annabel, 10, Emilia, 8, Gwendolyn, 6, and Jeremiah, 3.
Kimberly suffered a miscarriage in 2019 while Van Der Beek was competing on “Dancing with the Stars.”
“It was just so much pain, and it was so unexpected because everything was right, everything was fairy tale. Everything was coming together perfectly,” he shared on her “Bathroom Chronicles” podcast last year.
She suffered another miscarriage in June 2020.
“The soul we’d been excited to welcome into the world had lessons for our family that did not include joining us in a living physical body,” the actor shared on Instagram at the time.
Van Der Beek became a household name while playing Dawson Leery on “Dawson’s Creek.” The teen drama was on the air from 1998 to 2003 and also produced stars like Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson, Mary-Margaret Humes, John Wesley Shipp and Busy Philipps.
