James Van Der Beek Displays on How Most cancers Affected His Marriage and Household

James Van Der Beek is reflecting on his journey with colorectal most cancers.

The Dawson’s Creek alum marked his forty eighth birthday with an Instagram video known as “What most cancers taught me.”

Within the candid clip, shared on Saturday, March 8, Van Der Beek informed his supporters, “It has been the toughest yr of my life.”

He continued with an anecdote, recalling how he “used to outline myself as an actor” when he was youthful, despite the fact that it was “by no means actually all that fulfilling.” The Varsity Blues star mentioned as he acquired older, he started to outline himself as “the last word” function: a “loving, succesful, sturdy, supportive” husband, father, supplier and “steward of the land.”

Whereas he confessed that these definitions left him glad for a while, this previous yr he was compelled to “look my very own mortality within the eye.”

Van Der Beek shares six youngsters — Olivia, 14, Joshua, 13, Annabel, 11, Emilia, 8, Gwendolyn, 6, Jeremiah, 2, with spouse Kimberly (née Brook), whom he married in August 2010.

“I needed to come nostril to nostril with dying,” the actor continued of his prognosis. “And all these definitions that I cared so deeply about had been stripped from me.”

Van Der Beek shared that he “was away for therapy,” so he was not capable of assist his household in the best way he had previous to his prognosis.

“I might now not be a husband who was useful to my spouse,” he defined. “I might now not be a father who might decide up his youngsters and put them to mattress and be there for them. I couldn’t be a supplier as a result of I wasn’t working. I could not even be a steward of the land as a result of at instances I used to be too weak to prune all of the timber throughout the window that you simply’re alleged to prune them.”

He mentioned he needed to face the query of who he really was as somebody residing with most cancers. Colorectal most cancers, per the American Most cancers Society, begins within the colon or the rectum, which makes up the massive gut within the digestive system.

Following a journey of self-discovery and meditation, Van Der Beek mentioned he realized, “I’m worthy of God’s love, just because I exist. And if I am worthy of God’s love, should not I even be worthy of my very own?”

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“And the identical is true for you,” Van Der Beek mentioned as he acknowledged the prayers and help he is acquired since his prognosis. He concluded by telling followers their mantra can merely be, “‘I’m worthy of affection.’ Since you are.”

Van Der Beek first shared information of his prognosis in November 2024, telling PEOPLE on the time: “I’ve colorectal most cancers. I’ve been privately coping with this prognosis and have been taking steps to resolve it, with the help of my unimaginable household.”

“There’s purpose for optimism, and I’m feeling good,” he added.