Her father faced the diagnosis with stoicism: “They said, ‘You got cancer. If you came in later, you would have been dead.’ See? That’s my life. I think the universe is taking care of me,” he said.
Melania recalled a moment three years ago when, in the middle of the night, she called her dad, hysterical: “I called you and said, ‘I think I’m dying.’”
Her dad was at her front door 15 minutes later. “He gave me, what I think of ever since I was a little girl, a ‘daddy bear hug,’” she recalled. “He said, ‘This is going to be a blip in your life. You’re going to get through this, and it’ll be a memory.’”
The two relied on each other as they both underwent treatment.
When Melanie shared concerns about the high cost of cancer treatment, Shatner said to her: “I do not want you to worry. Just send me the bills.”
A year later, she said he made her “laugh so hard” as she was still going to medical appointments and he told her: “You’ve got to get well. We’re going to be in the poorhouse!”
Shatner, who is 95, is father to Melania, 61, Leslie, 67, and Lisabeth, 65, with their late mum, actress Gloria Rand, who died in 2017.
He credits his close family bonds, as well as outstanding medical treatment, as a key factor in their recoveries. “We’re a very together family,” he said in the interview. “We’re bonded by all kinds of difficulties that we’ve overcome.”
They credit their medical teams with now both being cancer-free: “We got the perfect doctors for her cancer and my cancer,” the actor said.
They both said their cancer journeys have given them a renewed outlook on life and a new appreciation for what truly matters.
“I’m thinking of the miracle of a hummingbird, and of my dog taking a ball, and my children,” Shatner said. “I’m aware of the magic of it all.”
The two will launch a new podcast on July 29, titled No Time but Now, interviewing health experts and fellow cancer survivors about their journeys with the disease.