James Van Der Beek explained this week that he is now in the “healing phase” of his cancer battle.
“I feel like I can see the finish line,” he told “Extra” after being revealed as the Griffin on “The Masked Singer” on Wednesday. “I’m in a healing phase, which is great. I’m going back to work next month. I’m taking this month really to just kind of relax.”
The actor told “Extra” that he appreciated being able to wear the mask on the show.
“Especially with everything I was going through, and I just announced the health issues I was dealing with, so to be able to put on the mask and connect with an audience without that being a part of the equation was actually a really beautiful thing,” he explained.
JAMES VAN DER BEEK MISTOOK CANCER SYMPTOMS FOR PROBLEMS WITH HIS DIET
James Van Der Beek explained this week that he is now in the “healing phase” of his cancer battle. (Casey Flanigan/IndieWire/Penske Media via Getty Images)
The “Dawson’s Creek” star revealed last November that he was undergoing treatment for colorectal cancer, and earlier this month, as he turned 48, he talked about the “hardest year” of his life.
“When I was younger, I used to define myself as an actor, which was never all that fulfilling, and then I became a husband… it was much better and then I became a father… that was the ultimate,” he said to his 1.6 million followers on Instagram on March 8.
Van Der Beek shares six children with his wife, Kimberly: Olivia, 14; Joshua, 13; Annabel, 11; Emilia, 8; Gwendolyn, 6; and Jeremiah, 2.
“I feel like I can see the finish line. I ‘m in a healing phase, which is great. I’m going back to work next month. I’m taking this month really to just kind of relax.”
The father-of-six pointed out that during his cancer battle he was forced to “look my own mortality in the eye.”
“I had to come nose to nose with death,” he remarked. “And all those definitions that I cared so deeply about were stripped from me.”
Van der Beek with his wife, Kimberly. (Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Hulu)
“I was away for treatment, so I could no longer be a husband who was helpful to my wife,” Van Der Beek continued. “I could no longer be a father who could pick up his kids and put them to bed and be there for them. I could not be a provider because I wasn’t working.”
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During his cancer journey, the actor admitted he began to question if he was “just a too-skinny, weak guy, alone in an apartment with cancer… what am I?”
The “Varsity Blues” star said at that moment he leaned on his faith.
“I am worthy of God’s love simply because I exist,” Van der Beek shared. “And if I’m worthy of God’s love, shouldn’t I also be worthy of my own?”
Van Der Beek revealed his colorectal cancer diagnosis in November. (Drew Herrmann/FOX)
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“As I move through this healing portal toward recovery,” Van Der Beek said, “I wanted to share that with you because that revelation that came to me was in no small part to all the prayers and the love that had been directed toward me.”
He went on to say, “I certainly don’t claim to know what God is or explain God, my efforts to connect to God are an ongoing process that is a constant unfolding mystery to me.
“But, if it’s a trigger that feels too religious, you can take the word God out in your mind and it can simply be ‘I am worthy of love.’ Because you are.”
Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright contributed to this report.
