Six Children and a Final Warning

Two days before he died, James Van Der Beek married his wife again. Friends brought new rings. Someone filled the bedroom with flowers and candles. A musician named Poranguí played 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' while James and Kimberly renewed their vows from bed. They'd been married fifteen years. They have six children, ages 4 to 15.

James Van Der Beek died on February 11, 2026. He was 48. He'd been fighting Stage 3 colorectal cancer since August 2023, when he noticed changes in his bowel habits and went to a doctor. He kept the diagnosis private for sixteen months before going public in November 2024. "I was healthy. I was doing the cold plunge. I was in amazing cardiovascular shape, and I had stage 3 cancer, and I had no idea," he told Today. He spent the last year of his life trying to make sure other people got screened.

James Van Der Beek at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, during a period when he was healthy and had no idea what lay ahead.© gdcgraphics, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kimberly Van Der Beek — a former business consultant who met James on a trip to Israel in 2009 — announced his death on Instagram. "He met his final days with courage, faith and grace," she wrote. She told People magazine about the vow renewal: "Our friends got us new rings, filled our bedroom with flowers and candles and we renewed our vows from bed." She is now raising six children on a 36-acre ranch in Spicewood, Texas that friends helped the family purchase through a trust just 33 days before James died.

The money part of this story is ugly and important. Van Der Beek received almost nothing from Dawson's Creek reruns — a contract clause he signed at 20 saw to that. He sold Dawson's Creek memorabilia to help pay for treatment, including nonstandard therapies. Average colorectal cancer treatment runs about $56,000 a year in the initial phase and roughly $110,000 in the final year. A GoFundMe launched by friends after his death raised over $2.6 million, but it drew backlash when the $4.76 million ranch purchase surfaced. Mehcad Brooks, a close friend who spent the last four or five days at James's bedside holding his hand and praying, wasn't having it. "You have no idea the pain they went through," he wrote on Threads. "It's ok to stfu when you can't know what the f—k you're talking about."

Katie Holmes, who posted a handwritten letter on Instagram after James's death calling his life 'the journey of a Hero' and praising the beautiful marriage and six loving children he created.© MC1 Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Dawson's Creek family showed up the way you'd hope. Katie Holmes posted a handwritten letter on Instagram. "Bravery. Compassion. Selflessness. Strength. An appreciation for life and the action taken to live life with the integrity that life is art — creating a beautiful marriage, six loving children — the journey of a Hero," she wrote. Michelle Williams broke her silence days later, saying she thinks of the family constantly. Busy Philipps called James's six children "magical" and wrote simply: "He was my friend and I loved him. I am profoundly heartbroken for his incredible wife Kimberly and their six magical children." Kevin Williamson, the creator who gave a 20-year-old kid the role that made him famous, posted his own tribute expressing love and support for Kimberly and the family.

In December 2024, James appeared on Fox's 'The Real Full Monty,' a strip-tease special for cancer awareness, where he told his castmates about his own diagnosis. He'd also become the first ambassador for Guardant Health's Shield blood test for colorectal cancer screening. "Don't think that not having symptoms means you don't have to get screened," he said in the campaign, "especially for something that is this curable when caught early." Fox re-aired the special on February 18, a week after his death, with a QR code for Colorectal Cancer Alliance donations.

Here's the number that should scare you: colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death among young adults. One in five diagnoses is in someone under 55. Rates are climbing 3% per year in adults under 50, and screening prevalence in that age group sits at just 37%. The Shield blood test James championed is now FDA-approved and available through Quest Diagnostics nationwide. He wanted one thing from every interview he gave. "If anybody takes anything away from this interview," he told Today, "it would be get tested, talk to your doctor."

He left behind Kimberly, six kids on a Texas ranch, and a message that outlived him. Get screened.