William Shatner and His Daughter Were Both Told They Had Five Months to Live

William Shatner was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma in June 2023, right as his daughter Melanie was already fighting Stage 4 breast cancer. Both were told to pack their bags and given five months. Two years later, they’ve both beaten it.

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Shatner’s melanoma started as a small lump on his cheek and spread to his lungs and brain before surgery and two years of immunotherapy cleared it. His daughter Melanie Shatner Gretsch, 62, got through her Stage 4 breast cancer with chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, radiation and immunotherapy.

“Ten years ago, I would have been dead,” he told USA TODAY. The father and daughter were fighting at the same time, each handed the same grim window. “Can you imagine being told you’ve got five months to live?”

The scare rewired how he sees his own life. “I never thought about dying. I wandered and blundered through life thinking, ‘I’m not going to die,'” he said, describing a lifelong sense that “the universe was taking care of me.”

That worldview has “worn off like a callus,” leaving him grateful for small things, right down to the buttermilk chicken he’d had for dinner the night before. When asked what passion has grown with age, Shatner named one: staying alive. “Not dying, that’s always a good thing. I’ve thought about dying a lot.”

He and Melanie now host a wellness podcast together, “No Time But Now.” “We’re totally in the clear,” he said.

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