William Shatner, 95, addresses brain cancer rumors seven months after denying he was 'rushed to hospital'
Star Trek legend William Shatner has firmly denied a rumor ricocheting around social media that he has been diagnosed with brain cancer.The 95-year-old's message was accompanied by a photo of him in a backyard patio chair, seated upright and offering the camera a sprightly grin.'My Daughter came over to tell me her daughter heard that I had brain cancer,' he wrote Thursday with a rolling eyes emoji on X, formerly Twitter. 'She took this photo and sent it to me to upload to prove I'm not ill. The people who are ill are those that are spreading these ridiculous stories. I'm fit as a fiddle. You don't have to worry,' the native Montrealer assured his fans.Shatner, who is beloved by Trekkies as the show's lead character Captain Kirk, uploaded another X post that day to criticize a Facebook page that was 'using AI to create horrible fake news stories about me.'Entitled The Beanstalk Functions Group, that page was according to Shatner the source of the brain cancer rumor, as well as a claim he had a spat with Erika Kirk. Star Trek legend William Shatner has firmly denied a rumor ricocheting around social media that he has been diagnosed with brain cancer'I wanted to put this out yesterday but given the day and the possibility that it would look like a joke I waited for today,' he wrote the morning after April Fool's Day.Shatner then pointed fans to the offending Facebook page, which he wrote has 'created stories that say I have stage 4 brain cancer, was in some kind of fight with Erika Kirk and that I’m dying. All their stories are monetized. Most of the stories use an AI image of me. Facebook Support will not remove the page.'Read More Star Trek icon who famously feuded with William Shatner seen on sprightly rare outing at 89 He also contacted the CEO of Next.js - the web development framework that was apparently used to create the Facebook page - in a bid to have the stories pulled.'None of these stories are true but they apparently seem genuine enough for fans to repost them across social media and send messages of support to me and my family all while the culprits behind the account make money,' he wrote.'This is the downside of AI and yellow journalism. While [it] can be a wonderful tool in the right hands; it can be used as a weapon in the wrong hands,' he warned.'If you see a bizarre story about me; unless you see it posted on one of my verified accounts take it with a grain of salt,' the sci-fi icon added.Last September he found himself denying a report that he was hospitalized for a medical emergency involving his blood sugar.Insiders claimed that when the issue occurred, he called the emergency services and a Los Angeles Fire Department ambulance arrived on the scene, via TMZ. The 95-year-old's message was accompanied by a photo of him in a backyard patio chair, seated upright and offering the camera a sprightly grin Shatner is beloved by Trekkies as the show's lead character Captain Kirk, whom he is pictured playing in 1966 at the height of the franchise's popularityHowever his agency TalentWorks released a statement insisting that the report was false and that Shatner was all right, according to ABC 7 News.His agent Harry Gold then said in a statement: 'I spoke to Bill earlier this evening, he is fine. He is not in the hospital. He is at home. He is 100 percent healthy.'Shatner himself responded wryly to the report, posting a meme of himself playing Mark Twain on the Canadian series Murdoch Mysteries, along with the phrase: 'Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated!' That scare came over a year after Shatner revealed he is a cancer survivor, having previously been diagnosed with stage four melanoma.He explained that he had an operation and then underwent immunotherapy to treat the condition, although he did not disclose when, according to the industry publication Managed Healthcare Executive.In 2016 he received a prostate cancer diagnosis that turned out to be a false alarm, thanks to a drastic spike in his levels of PSA (prostate-specific antigen), a protein produced by the gland.'That was really scary,' Shatner remembered to NBC News. 'I was told by a doctor I had a terminal disease. That I was going to die.'He attributed his elevated levels of PSA to testosterone supplements that he was taking at the time of his misdiagnosis, and that he has since stopped using.
