James Van Der Beek Diagnosed With Colorectal Cancer


James Van Der Beek has been diagnosed with 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,” the Dawson’s Creek alum, 47, told People on Sunday, November 3. “There’s reason for optimism, and I’m feeling good.”

James did not further detail his health battle but has his loved ones in his corner. The actor has been married to Kimberly Van Der Beek since 2010 and they share six children.

Earlier on Sunday, Kimberly, 42, praised their relationship.

“Northern cardinals, the ‘romantic’ births that mate for life, travel together, sing before nesting and feed each other seed beak-to-beak during courtship,” an anonymous post that Kimberly reshared to her Instagram Story read. She captioned it, “Hi baby” and tagged James’ account.

James and Kimberly are parents to Olivia, 13, Joshua, 12, Annabel, 10, Emilia, 7, Gwendolyn, 6, and Jeremiah, 2. (Kimberly has also suffered multiple miscarriages.)

James has long been candid about his parenting journey, previously telling Us Weekly how the coronavirus pandemic impacted his perspective.

“Just really learning to prioritize. I think we’ve all come to this realization that we were all so busy before with stuff that didn’t really serve us and didn’t necessarily make us happy,” James exclusively told Us in September 2020. “So now it’s like, ‘What am I building my life around?’ [I realized] so many of the things that I entertained doing were either based [on] some outdated idea of what I thought would be important to make me happy or somebody else’s hope or dream or expectation.”

He added, “It’s just been a real lesson in being present and recognizing how much more I need to be present, with my kids and family, and what’s really important. I’ve been paying a lot more attention to what I consume in terms of food, media, stories, entertainment. Does it enrich me? Does it make me happy? Does it give me energy? And how do I feel afterward?”

James and Kimberly later moved their brood from Los Angeles to the suburbs in Texas. Earlier this week, he gushed over dressing up for Halloween with his daughters and sons.

“I made all my own costumes growing up. Didn’t really have a choice. But I loved it,” James wrote via Instagram on Friday, November 1. “Should probably have been the first warning sign to my parents that I would end up an actor 😂. But in a SPIRIT HALLOWEEN world … my six-year-old was devastated that her angel costume would not arrive in time for trick-or-treating.”

He continued, “After acknowledging the tears, she was given the project of making her own halo, which she worked on for HOURS — wrapping yellow yarn around some garden wire. Focused in a way might not have believed possible. And the look of pride on her face upon seeing the final project in the mirror was, for me… my favorite moment of Halloween.”