William Shatner, Daughter Melanie Detail Stage 4 Cancer Battles
The Shatner family faced an unimaginable frontier: two simultaneous cancer battles.
Three years after William Shatner was diagnosed with stage 4 malignant melanoma amid his daughter Melanie Shatner Gretsch‘s battle with stage 4 breast cancer, the pair reflected on navigating the scary chapter together.
“I remember vividly thinking, ‘I don’t have the strength to take care of myself and lose my father at the same time,'” Melanie told People in a joint interview with William published July 22. “I was having a moment and was hysterical. I called you and said, ‘I think I’m dying.'”
But her dad was right there by her side.
“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.'”
Meanwhile, the Star Trek alum—who was diagnosed with cancer in June 2023 that spread to his lungs and brain, less than one year after Melanie’s diagnosis—noted that their dual health battles ultimately strengthened their relationship.
