Jill Biden Reveals Joe's Cancer Has Spread

Former first lady Jill Biden gave a personal update on former president Joe Biden’s health, saying that his stage 4 prostate cancer has slowed him down and will remain part of his life permanently.

Speaking with Ana Navarro during an event for her new memoir, View From the East Wing, Biden described how the diagnosis was first discovered after she urged her husband to see a urologist. She said that while he was still president, she noticed he was waking up as many as seven times a night to use the bathroom, but assumed the White House medical team would follow up.

After the Bidens left the White House in 2025 and the symptoms continued, she pushed him to get checked.

At the first urology appointment, she said, the doctor told them, “There’s something there,” and Biden was sent for a CAT scan.

“I never imagined it would be prostate cancer,” she said. “I just never imagined it.”

Jill Biden explained that while some cases of prostate cancer can be cured, her husband’s case is more complicated because the disease was diagnosed at stage 4 and had already spread to his bones.

“That puts things on a whole different level,” she said. “Joe will have to live with cancer for the rest of his life, which means he’s on special medicines.”

She said the former president also underwent radiation treatment, which required frequent travel from Delaware to Philadelphia over five weeks.

“You know, it takes a toll,” she said.

Still, she emphasized that Biden remains active. On Friday night, he appeared at a Democratic Party event in South Dakota. On Saturday, he attended a friend’s wedding, and on Sunday he was expected to be in Philadelphia.

“He keeps his schedule, but he’s slowed down,” she said. “Stage four cancer is, and he’s 83, so I think the mix of everything and the medications that he’s taken has made life a little more difficult these days.”

Biden also spoke about her role as his caretaker, while acknowledging that her husband would likely object to that description. She said she handles many of the details surrounding his care, including speaking with doctors, arranging appointments, making sure he takes the right medications and watching his diet.

“It’s hard to be a caretaker,” she said.

Joe Biden publicly announced his cancer diagnosis in May 2025. Earlier this week, Jill Biden told the Today show that he is “doing OK,” noting that he continues to give speeches, travel by Amtrak and appear at public events.

But she also acknowledged that the diagnosis changed the way she now looks back at the 2024 presidential race. Asked whether Biden could have served another four years, she said his cancer diagnosis made that impossible.

The former first lady also discussed the period after Biden’s difficult June 2024 debate, when pressure from Democrats pushed him to leave the race. She recalled that while they were at their home in Delaware, he turned to her and said, “I have no choice.”

She said it was painful to watch longtime Democratic allies publicly call for him to drop out, including people she considered friends. Biden said her husband later reconciled with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a funeral in January, though she herself has not spoken with Pelosi since.

Jill Biden also argued that there has been a double standard in the way her husband’s age and mental acuity were discussed compared with President Donald Trump, who is set to turn 80 on June 14.

Asked what she hopes to see in the next president after Trump, Biden said she wants someone with integrity, trustworthiness and empathy, but did not name a preferred candidate.

“They’re the characteristics of the American people,” she said. “That’s who we are.”