James Van Der Beek Doesn't Let His Kids Watch “Dawson's Creek”: They Don't Need to See 'Their Dad Pretend to Go Through Puberty'

James Van Der Beek is just “dad” when it comes to his kids.

During his Dec. 4 appearance on The View, the actor, 47, opened up about his career, his recent diagnosis with colorectal cancer and his family. Reflecting on his time on Dawson’s Creek, Van Der Beek revealed if he lets his children watch the beloved teen drama series.

"I do not," he said. "It's a great show, I love the show, I think other kids can watch it. I don't think my kids need to watch their dad pretend to go through puberty. That's my stance on it."

"It was a very well-intentioned show, people really trying to do the right thing and speaking incredibly eloquently about how they were trying to do the right thing," he added, acknowledging its massive success. "I think that seed of good intentions comes through."

Related: James Van Der Beek Sells Past Movie Merch to Help Families with 'the Financial Burden of Cancer — Including My Own'

Van Der Beek can’t shield his children from Dawson Leery entirely, though. In 2022, he shared a funny moment when his daughter Olivia found him on the internet.

"For some online learning, we got them iPads and they immediately discovered memes," he told PEOPLE at the time. "So it started, my eldest sent me a meme of myself."

Jokingly sending back “one of me dancing or something,” the Varsity Blues star said Olivia then responded with an image of his famous crying face from Dawson’s Creek.

"She immediately hit me with the cry face," he laughed. "I thought, 'That's aggressive.'”

Van Der Beek shares six children with wife Kimberly: Olivia, 14, Joshua, 12, Annabel, 10, Emilia, 8, Gwen, 6, and Jeremiah, 3. The pair met in 2009 and got married in 2010, welcoming their first that same year — but they didn’t intend to have so many.

"It just happened. We had one planned child,” he told PEOPLE in his November 2024 cover story. "One! Out of six. One was 100% on purpose. The one thing we really sucked at was not getting pregnant. But thank God, honestly, because it's such a struggle for people, and we really don't take it for granted. I joke, and I laugh, but like, yeah, we really just kind of got lucky that way."

Related: James Van Der Beek's 6 Children: All About His Sons and Daughters

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Several years before being diagnosed with cancer, Van Der Beek said he got a vasectomy. He and Kimberly revealed that throughout their marriage, they have suffered five miscarriages.

"Two of them were late-term, near-death experiences,” she told PEOPLE. “We've weathered a lot of storms together."

Despite Van Der Beek’s cancer being another hardship, Kimberly said they are continuing to live a happy life.

"This has been a really difficult year, but there's been this underlying way that we savor life differently,” she explained. “It feels like we understand what real true presence is, what savoring life feels like, finding the beauty in all of it."

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