James Pickens Jr., the legendary TV doc who’s held down “Grey’s Anatomy” for 22 seasons, just revealed he’s facing a real-life health battle that hits close to home.
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The 73-year-old actor shared that he’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer, a storyline that ironically mirrors what his character, Dr. Richard Webber, is currently navigating on the show.
But Pickens isn’t sharing the news with fear, he’s sharing it with purpose.
“It’s not the kind of news anyone wants to hear, but to be honest, prostate cancer has run through my family,” he told Black Health Matters. And when he says it runs through his family, he means deep. “My father had it. He had a lot of brothers; several of them had it. I would have been surprised if I hadn’t gotten it.”
The actor went on to explain that generations of men in his family have faced the disease, and survived. “I’ve got a 90-year-old first cousin, who’s still alive, actually, [and] he had it. His son has it, a couple of his brothers had it. No one, as far as I know, has succumbed to it.”
For fans of Grey’s Anatomy, this news hits like a double take. Just as the fall finale closed with Richard Webber revealing to Dr. Miranda Bailey (played by Chandra Wilson) that he’d been diagnosed with cancer, the actor behind the iconic character was living his own version of that storyline in real time.
Pickens said he was officially diagnosed earlier this year. And let’s be clear—his dedication to his health played a major role in catching the cancer early.
“I started getting my annual physical 34 years ago, and I started my PSA testing when I was 41. I’m 73 now,” he told the outlet. That kind of consistency is exactly what gave him a head start. “My urologist said, ‘Because you were so diligent in that piece of your health, it was to your advantage. We were able to catch it so early because you were being tested.’”
In January, tests revealed a tumor on his prostate. The good news: it hadn’t spread. So Pickens chose a prostatectomy—a surgery to remove the prostate altogether.
“We caught it really early, and so they thought that would be the best route to take,” he explained.
But there was another twist: Pickens’ cancer turned out to be a rare variant. “I do have a rare variant that you don’t see very often. They wanted to err on the side of caution and keep an eye on it. It was rare enough that they wanted to make sure that they were crossing all the T’s and dotting all their I’s, but they hadn’t seen one that was detected as early as mine.”
Through it all, Pickens is standing strong—grateful for early testing, grateful for family resilience, and hopeful that sharing his journey will push more Black men to get proactive about their health.
If there’s one thing Dr. Webber has taught us over the years, it’s how to fight with grace. Turns out, James Pickens Jr. is doing the exact same thing.
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