Fans of The Real Housewives of Potomac who have watched the show since it began likely remember Charrisse Jackson-Jordan.
Charrisse, 61, was a full-time cast member during the first two seasons of the show and made various appearances afterward.
Yesterday, she and her 27-year-old son Jackson revealed to PEOPLE that he has been battling colon cancer.
In the fall of 2025, Jackson started to notice that his bowel habits were changing and that there was blood in his stool. He decided to ignore the symptoms as he did not want to find out any bad news from medical professionals.
“It was more so out of fear of what they would say,” he said. “I was just kind of hoping it would go away or hoping I could do something myself to fix it without telling anybody.”
In late November, while living with his sister Skylar, they started walking to the gym when, all of a sudden, he felt ill.
“As soon as I stepped outside, it was like everything just felt too bright and my eyes were sensitive. I walked maybe a block and a half and felt like I was about to faint,” he shared. “I had to sit down on the sidewalk for a few minutes and then we walked back to her apartment.”
Jackson Jordan gets treatment amid his battle with colon cancer
Skylar called her mother and said she thought Jackson needed to be evaluated by a doctor, and once Charrisse saw him on Thanksgiving, she agreed.
“When I saw him, immediately I’m like, ‘Something’s not right.’ He had lost a lot of weight. He was sort of lethargic and had no color at all. He looked like a ghost,” she claimed.
Once he got evaluated by doctors, he was found to have colon cancer.
“Because I waited so long to go to the doctor, I was already bracing myself for the worst, hearing that specific word,” Jackson noted. “So I was more concerned about my parents’ reaction and emotions over myself.”
“I remember them wheeling me back to my hospital room, and my dad was in the hallway crying,” he added. “And then they wheeled me into the room, and my mom was, like, curled up on the bed I was staying in and she was so emotional.”
Charrisse, for her part, shared that she was “numb,” “scared,” and had a “pit in her stomach” as the situation “didn’t seem real.”
“But at the same time, oddly, I wasn’t really worried,” she elaborated. “Deep in my heart, because of my faith, I believed everything was going to be okay.”
In January, Jackson luckily found out the cancer was caught early and had not spread. He then underwent a weekly course of radiation for two months.
There was good news along the way, as he found out from his doctor that his tumor was shrinking.
“I remember, after he told me that, I went outside and I was just so emotional because I was so unsure of how my body would respond to everything. And that just kept me in a positive spirit moving forward,” Jackson stated.
After completing radiation and recovering for a month, Jackson had four months of biweekly chemotherapy.
In August, Jackson completed his treatment, and in early September, he was said to be cancer-free.
“I’m just grateful to have been able to persevere,” he noted. “This kinda gave me a different perspective on life, just living your life to the fullest because you never know what can happen.”
He also advised people to not wait if they’re going through something and to get it checked.
“Even if you’re young in your 20s, you’re not invincible,” Jackson said. “On paper, I was doing everything right. I was healthy, working out every day, particular about my diet, and then this happens. So just pay attention to your body.”