Dawson's Creek star James Van Der Beek has spoken about his decision to go public with his cancer diagnosis. The 47-year-old actor revealed he had bowel cancer in a lengthy Instagram post on Sunday and that an unnamed tabloid was preparing to run the story, so he decided to beat them to the punch. Van Der Beek said he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer —a cancer that starts in the colon or rectum—and was planning on doing a feature interview with People magazine about, but was forced to reveal it sooner than planned.
"There's no playbook for how announce these things...
to raise awareness and tell my story on my own terms. But that plan had to be altered early this morning when I was informed that a tabloid was going to run with the news," Van Der Beek said in the post. He added that while he was deciding on how to tell the world about his diagnosis, he was getting treatment and focusing on his health.
"I'm in a good place and feeling strong. It's been quite the initiation, and I'll tell you more when I'm ready," he wrote on Instagram. "Apologies to all the people in my life who I'd planned on telling myself.
Nothing about this process has occurred on my preferred timeline...
But we roll with it, taking each surprise as a signpost, pointing us toward a greater destiny than we would have discovered without divine intervention." The actor thanked his fans for their outpouring of support and People ended up running an interview with him on the same day. "I have colorectal .