James Van Der Beek Celebrates Halloween with Family During Cancer Treatment
Actor James Van Der Beek spent Halloween trick-or-treating with his family yesterday, just over a year after publicly revealing his stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis.
Van Der Beek’s wife, Kimberly, shared photos on Instagram of the family’s costumes, with the actor dressed as the Phantom of the Opera and Kimberly as a fox. Their six children – Olivia, 15, Joshua, 13, Annabel, 11, Emilia, 9, Gwendolyn, 7, and Jeremiah, 4 – also sported individual costumes, including a Statue of Liberty, a witch, and a skeleton. Kimberly documented the evening, sharing a photo of Van Der Beek driving the children around the neighborhood in a golf cart, captioning it, “A trick-or-treat golf cart?! Don’t mind if we do.”
The actor announced his cancer diagnosis in November 2023, stating he had already begun treatment and expressing optimism about his recovery. He described the experience as “a crash course in the mastery of mind, body, and spirit,” adding, “I thought, ‘This is either going to take me out of the body, or it’s going to teach me how to truly live in it.’” Van Der Beek was previously forced to cancel an appearance at a Dawson’s Creek reunion in September due to illness, but he has since been resting and recovering. Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Van Der Beek continues to focus on his health and family, and his representatives have not yet provided an update on his current treatment status.
