{"id":705733,"date":"2026-07-22T19:07:24","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:07:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705733\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T19:07:24","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:07:24","slug":"william-shatner-and-his-daughter-reveal-simultaneous-stage-4-cancer-diagnoses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/705733\/","title":{"rendered":"William Shatner and his daughter reveal simultaneous stage 4 cancer diagnoses"},"content":{"rendered":"

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William Shatner <\/a>has revealed that he was dealing with stage 4 cancer at the same time as his daughter, Melanie Shatner Gretsch.<\/a><\/p>\n

The 95-year-old Canadian actor told People in an interview published Wednesday that Gretsch, 61, was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer <\/a>in 2022 after finding a lump in her breast. <\/p>\n

Shatner revealed that about a year later, in June 2023, he was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma, a serious form of skin cancer, that had spread to his lungs and brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember vividly thinking, \u2018I don\u2019t have the strength to take care of myself and lose my father at the same time,\u2019\u201d Gretsch, the youngest daughter of Shatner and first wife Gloria Rand, told the outlet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The father-daughter duo were both declared cancer-free by late 2024.<\/p>\n

\"WilliamWilliam Shatner has revealed he is cancer-free after being diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma (AFP\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Shatner said: \u201cWe got the perfect doctors for her cancer and my cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the year and a half after her diagnosis, Gretsch \u2014 who has two children with husband Joel Gretsch\u2014 said she underwent multiple rounds of chemotherapy, a double mastectomy and 30 radiation therapy treatments. <\/p>\n

Gretsch said her father offered to help her financially during her treatment, saying: \u201cI do not want you to worry. Just send me the bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you made me laugh so hard when I was still going to the doctor a year later,\u201d she said to the Star Trek actor, according to People. \u201cYou said, \u2018You\u2019ve got to get well. We\u2019re going to be in the poorhouse!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

However, when she was nearly done with her treatments, her father found a lump in his cheek that turned out to be a tumor. He had surgery to remove it and underwent two years of immunotherapy to fight the cancer.<\/p>\n

\"MelanieMelanie Shatner, pictured here in 2006, married actor Joel Gretsch in 1999 (Getty)<\/p>\n

Shatner previously opened up about the fear he felt when he was diagnosed<\/a>. During a 2024 keynote presentation at the American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting, he recalled: \u201cI said, \u2018Stage 4?\u2019 And someone in the room said, \u2018Sorry.\u2019 I said, \u2018What are you sorry about?\u2019 It was like, \u2018Better pack your things.\u2019 That person who said \u2018sorry,\u2019 that was very sad, like you are going to die. And I was. They said if this [treatment] they used did not work, I had about 5 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two-time Emmy winner told People that his cancer diagnosis made him more grateful for the little things in his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy for us in this lovely home to say, \u2018Make your life meaningful.\u2019 It\u2019s much more difficult to be poverty-stricken and wonder how you\u2019re going to get through it. I\u2019ve been there,\u201d Shatner told the outlet.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s also possible to endure that and be aware of the beauty around you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[234161,6491,96,234162,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-705733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-234161","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-eos1dmkii-n-0000413269","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}