It has been a "grueling" road to recovery for Val Kilmer, who was diagnosed with throat cancer and had to undergo surgery on his trachea, his children have revealed in a new interview.
Kilmer was officially diagnosed in 2014. He had surgery, then underwent chemotherapy and radiation, which left him with a tracheostomy tube and a feeding tube, and while he is "doing well," Kilmer is still recovering," his daughter, Mercedes, told Extra.
"The recovery process is just as grueling as the actual disease," she explained.
Kilmer's son, Jack, added that, while it has been tough on the whole family, they found the support from fans so touching.
"Everyone has been so supportive; it makes me emotional," he said. "It’s really beautiful to see people come together."
In 2020, Kilmer sat down for an interview with The New York Times and shared unconventional views regarding his cancer, saying that he believed the lump the doctors discovered was his own fear of expressing himself.
In Christian Science, which is a structure which Kilmer follows, there is no set diagnosis, or as Kilmer explained: "the idea is rather than say I have it or possess it, there is a claim, there’s a suggestion that this is a fact."
Through prayer with a spiritual adviser, he believed he could release the fear and his body would no longer "manifest outwardly what can be diagnosed as a malady."
However, his family was reluctant for him to skip treatment and he relented.
"I just didn’t want to experience their fear, which was profound," Kilmer said. "I would’ve had to go away, and I just didn’t want to be without them."
Kilmer caused a stir two years later, when he denied having cancer after Michael Douglas, who had also suffered from the illness, said they both did. Kilmer repeated the statement to The New York Times.
"They said I was denying that I had cancer, and when they asked me, I didn’t have cancer," he said.
Kilmer said that it was prayer that helped him overcome the cancer and that the medical treatment he received did more harm than good.
His trach tube was "from radiation and chemotherapy" and "not from cancer." he said. "That 'treatment' caused my suffering."
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