A little over a year after announcing he’d been diagnosed with colorectal cancer, James Van Der Beek said his diagnosis has been a “gift” that’s changed his life. In an interview on the Today show on Friday, the former Dawson’s Creek star thanked fans for their support and said he’s feeling “much, much better than I did a couple months ago.” “I feel a little bit better every month,” he said. “It’s required more of me — more patience, more discipline, more strength than I knew I had. I knew I was strong — I didn’t know I was this strong. But I feel good.”
In the interview, Van Der Beek said he found out about his stage-three colorectal-cancer diagnosis while still in a post-anesthesia haze after getting a colonoscopy. “As soon as I heard the news, I thought, This is going to be the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said. “I had this little voice in my head that said, You’re going to make changes in your life that you would never, ever make if you didn’t have this extreme of a diagnosis, and it’s going to add healthy, happy years to your life.” Van Der Beek didn’t go into much detail about those changes but said he didn’t know “what it was to slow down before” or to “really look at everything I eat, everything I put in my body.”
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He credited his family — his wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, and their six children — for his positive outlook. “I would not be alive if it weren’t for my wife. She just has stepped up as a caretaker, as a nurse, as head of the household,” he said. “And then my kids, as much as I want to shield them from seeing me in any kind of pain or just stress — I wanted to be Superman, Super Dad — you realize that resilience is not only something that they have and can build, but it’s the best thing for them.”
