Celebrity3 min(s) read
Busy Philipps has revealed she was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor earlier this year and had it surgically removed, saying it was the death of her Dawson's Creek co-star James Van Der Beek that pushed her to keep the appointment that found it.
Philipps, 47, told People magazine that the past six months have been 'the weirdest six months of my life'.
"I'm grateful that I'm alive," she said.
Philipps had booked a full body MRI on what she described as gut instinct. She did not have symptoms. She did not have a medical reason. She just felt like she should get one.
"I didn't know why I wanted to get this scan except for the fact that I just did," she said.
She kept pushing the appointment back. Weather got in the way. Life got in the way. Then, on February 11, Van Der Beek died.
He was 48. He had been diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer in 2023 after it was found during a routine colonoscopy. He spent the final months of his life publicly advocating for regular health screenings, telling people not to wait until something felt wrong.
On the morning he died, Philipps was about to cancel her MRI again. Her ex-husband Marc Silverstein told her to go.
"He's like, 'Maybe it's the best thing you could do for your friend this morning.'"
She went. The scan found a tumor in her brain.
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The tumor was an oligodendroglioma, a rare type of brain tumor that forms in the cells that produce the protective coating around nerve fibres. They are slow-growing and account for roughly 4% of all primary brain tumors.
Philipps underwent surgery to have it removed. She said the operation was successful and she is recovering.
If she had cancelled that appointment, if Silverstein had not pushed her, if Van Der Beek had not died that morning, she may not have found it until symptoms appeared, by which point the situation could have been significantly worse.
Philipps and Van Der Beek were close. She joined the Dawson's Creek cast in season five, playing Audrey Liddell to his Dawson Leery. They stayed friends long after the show ended in 2003.
When he died in February, she posted on Instagram: "My heart is deeply hurting for all of us today. He was my friend and I loved him and I'm so grateful for our friendship all these years."
She called him 'one in a billion'.
In a separate interview with Us Weekly in June, before the tumor diagnosis was public, Philipps talked about grief and about how Van Der Beek's death had reminded her to take her own health seriously.
At the time, nobody knew why she was saying it.
Philipps is best known for Dawson's Creek, Cougar Town (where she starred alongside Courteney Cox for six seasons), and Freaks and Geeks. She hosted her own late-night talk show, Busy Tonight, on E! in 2018-2019. She has also appeared in I Feel Pretty, Vice, and Girls5eva.
She is 47. She has two daughters with Silverstein, from whom she separated in 2021.
She said she decided to go public with the diagnosis because Van Der Beek spent his final months telling people to get checked, and she wanted to do the same thing.
His voice got her into the appointment. She wants hers to do the same for someone else.
