James Van Der Beek has broken down in tears as he opened up about his cancer diagnosis and how his family was helping him through it.
Last month, the 47-year-old star of Dawson’s Creek disclosed that he had received a diagnosis of colorectal cancer. He shared that he has been addressing the situation with the encouragement and assistance of his amazing family.
Speaking in a Good Morning America interview with Robin Roberts on Tuesday, James’s voice broke when he was asked about his wife of 14 years, Kim, being his ‘rock.’
‘I’m gonna lose it,’ he told Robin. ‘She’s been amazing, she really taught me what unconditional love is.
‘And I’m someone who is always in the past tried to do everything for everybody and never asked for help myself, and this has put me in a position of having to ask for help and having to receive help.
‘And the beautiful blessing of that has been seeing how many people in my life have shown up.’
When asked how he was feeling now, James admitted: ‘Physically, I’m great, feeling good… emotionally, it’s a lot, it’s really a ride.’
Referring to when he was first told he had cancer, James recalled: ‘I was honestly in shock. I was doing what I thought I needed to do by getting a colonoscopy, I was in amazing cardiovascular shape, eating what I thought was healthy.’
James Van Der Beek broke down during an appearance on Good Morning America on Tuesday
The actor praised his ‘amazing’ wife, Kim, and said she had shown him what ‘unconditional love’ was. The couple is pictured here in September 2023
‘And I had a whole agenda for what I thought my year would be and what I thought my priorities would be in the next couple of weeks and months,’ he continued.
‘And the reality that all of that was going to change and take a different trajectory, it felt like a nightmare honestly, at first, that I couldn’t quite wake up from, it’s a lot.’
When Robin asked how his optimism was helping him, James explained: ‘There are a couple things that I knew. As soon as I got diagnosed I knew, “All right, this is gonna add many happy years to my life, I’m going to make changes that I would have never made otherwise that I’ll look back on in 30 years and say, thank god this happened. So what can I do right now in order to make that the case?”‘
‘And that’s how I was about 90 per cent of the time. I would say about 10 per cent I was a sobbing, terrified mess, which I feel like is a pretty good percentage,’ he laughed.
‘But it’s been an exercise in just being present to all of it, and really just allowing the fear to come up and look at it and also say, “Okay, why is this in my prescription? Why are all these emotions coming up? And how can this be great for me?”‘
Robin then commented on him being able to keep his diagnosis ‘private’ for ‘so long’ and asked why he wanted to share his story now.
‘A couple things,’ he replied. ‘I had a tabloid call and say, “We have this story and we’re running with it.” Fortunately, I had started to put some of the wheels in motion about how I would talk about it.
‘I had agreed to do the real Full Monty, a two-hour special on Fox where a bunch of celebrities learn and perform the Full Monty striptease to raise awareness for early cancer detection.
James revealed that ‘physically’ he was ‘feeling good’ but said it had been a ‘tough’ and emotional ride
‘I thought that would be a really good thing to do, it would be good to support a group of guys. And just having been in the public eye as long as I have, I thought there’s going to be a purpose for this.
‘I think by sharing this, I can do some good, especially my type of cancer… is twice as prevalent now as it was in the nineties, and younger and healthier people.
‘So the more I could get the word out to get tested, get your colonoscopies, get scanned before you even have symptoms. Whatever I can do to get that word out.
‘As amazing and cathartic as this year has been, it’s been tough. If I can help anybody, if I can spare anyone the experience of my last year, I would want to do that.’
When James first announced his cancer diagnosis at the beginning of November, he spoke exclusively to People.
In his statement, he 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. There’s reason for optimism, and I’m feeling good.’
