James Van Der Beek Tears up Discussing His Wife Kimberly’s Reaction to Cancer Diagnosis

James Van Der Beek couldn’t hold back his emotion when opening up about wife Kimberly’s support throughout his cancer journey. The Dawson’s Creek star, 47, got choked up during his interview with Good Morning America on Tuesday, Dec. 10, revealing that his wife of almost 15 years has been “amazing” since he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer last year.

“She’s been amazing,” he said. “She’s really telling me what unconditional love is, and I’m someone who has 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.” He continued that the “beautiful blessing” of his cancer diagnosis “has been seeing how many people in my life have shown up” to support him in turn.

Van Der Beek and his wife share six children, all of whom have responded differently to their dad’s cancer battle. Some have been “very outward with their fears,” the actor shared, while for others, “it manifests in other ways.” The Varsity Blues star said there’s been an “opportunity for connection” there, however, and a chance to “really go deep with them” about their emotions.

“It’s really scary for them. They had a very close friend pass from an incredibly rare brain tumor at the same time, so there was a lot of cancer talk flying around, and a lot of it was really scary,” said the father of six. “But they’re doing great.”

Van Der Beek announced in November that he had been diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in August 2023. He revealed on GMA that he was “honestly in shock” upon learning he had cancer, noting, “I had a whole agenda for what I thought my year would be and what I thought my priorities would be … and the reality that all of that was going to change and take a different trajectory — it felt like a nightmare honestly at first.”

Despite his initial reaction, Van Der Beek said he soon “knew this is going to add many happy years to my life.” The actor explained, “I’m going to make changes that I never would have made otherwise, that I’m gonna look back on thirty 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 it was about 90% of the time. I would say that about 10% of the time I was a sobbing, terrified mess.”