Chuck Potthast, father of 90 Day Fiancé star Elizabeth Castravet, has died after a struggle with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 64.
“Two weeks ago, tragedy struck our family and it has left us completely shattered,” Castravet wrote in the caption of a family photo posted to Instagram on Nov. 23. “My sweet, loving, and caring dad went to heaven. We’re trying to figure out how to navigate our lives and move forward without him. Please respect our privacy during this extremely difficult time.”
Chuck Potthast/Instagram
Her sister Becky, who had also appeared on the TLC show, shared her own post honoring their late father, writing, “Two weeks ago on this day my world became distorted into a place I don’t understand. My father Chuck went home to be with The Lord. The pain is still more than I can bare so this is all I can write.”
Potthast had referenced his previous cancer struggles on the show — particularly when his daughter was estranged from her siblings, telling Castravet, “the Lord didn’t save my life to see my family fractured like this.” It was Potthast who urged his family to go to therapy to repair their relationship, saying, “I want this fixed.”
His type of brain cancer comes with a devastating prognosis: “There’s no cure for glioblastoma,” the Mayo Clinic explains. “Treatments might slow cancer growth and reduce symptoms.
He’d shared a health update on September 14, filmed from his hospital bed after undergoing an unexpectedly lengthy surgery. “My surgery was supposed to be about three to four hours long to fix hernias from my previous cancer operations that had developed. Once they got in there, they seen that my stomach wall had completely collapsed, so they had to fix that, which they did.”
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He shared that his surgery ended up being 8 hours long, but joked, “The benefit is I have a flat stomach now, which is cool.”
He added, “I wanted to thank everyone for their prayers and support. It really helped me get through it.”