James Van Der Beek Addresses Concerns About His Weight

James Van Der Beek’s noticeable weight loss is not directly cancer-related, he stressed last week.

The same stomach bug responsible for the actor, who revealed a stage 3 colorectal cancer diagnosis last year, missing a Dawson’s Creek reunion in September was also the culprit for his weight loss.

“I’d lost so much weight because of the stomach virus, yeah,” Van Der Beek told Today co-host Craig Melvin this week. “No, it was not cancer-related. Although with cancer, everything’s like, ‘Why don’t we super-size that stomach virus?’”

Although he didn’t give a specific update on his health amid his cancer battle, he did assure fans, “I feel much, much better than I did a couple months ago.”

Elsewhere in the interview, recorded for last Friday’s Today show, Van Der Beek reflected on the moment he was diagnosed, which he publicly announced in November 2024.

“I went into shock. But you know, one of the things I was really lucky about was as soon as I heard the news, I thought, ‘This is gonna be the best thing to ever happen to me.’ … I had this little voice in my head that said, ‘You’re gonna make changes in your life that you would never, ever make if you didn’t have this extreme of a diagnosis, and it’s gonna add healthy, happy years to your life,’” he said.

“I don’t think I knew what it was to slow down before … to really look at everything I eat, everything I put in my body,” he continued. “Really, the biggest change I’d say would be this journey of self-love. What I realized was, I’m still worthy of love. My own love, God’s love.”

He credited his wife, Kimberly — with whom he shares six children — with supporting him amid his journey. “I would not be alive were it not for my wife,” he said. “She has just stepped up as a caretaker, as a nurse, as head of the household. And then the kids, as much as I want to shield them from seeing me in any kind of pain … you realize that resilience is not only something they have and can build, but is the best thing for them.”