Former President Joe Biden’s family announced his prostate cancer diagnosis in May 2025
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NEED TO KNOW
- Hunter Biden said it is “really sad to watch” his father, Joe Biden, navigate his stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis
- Joe’s family announced his diagnosis in May 2025
- “The only thing that I say about my dad, about his health right now, is I wish he would complain more,” Hunter said in a new BBC interview
Hunter Biden is reflecting about watching his father, former President Joe Biden, navigate his journey with stage 4 prostate cancer.
“Cancer is really hard,” Hunter, 56, said in a new interview with the BBC’s Newsnight, released on Friday, Aug. 7. “It’s really sad to watch.”
The Biden family announced Joe’s stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis in May 2025. They said his cancer was “characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.”
“While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management,” the Biden family’s statement read. “The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”
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In his Newsnight interview, Hunter said his father is still the “center of our family,” calling him the “best father, the best husband, the best grandfather.” He said Joe’s cancer had spread, calling it “very painful” and “very debilitating.”
“The only thing that I say about my dad, about his health right now, is I wish he would complain more,” Hunter told Newsnight.
During a June 1 Today show appearance, former first lady Dr. Jill Biden said her husband is “doing OK.”
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“I think if he had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer, that’s one thing, because that can be cured, but the fact that it metastasized to his bones, that makes it a whole different story,” Jill, 74, told Today co-host Craig Melvin at the time.
“I think Joe will live with cancer till the rest of his life,” she continued.
Jill also shared an update about Joe’s health on the Wednesday, Aug. 5, episode of SiriusXM’s Let’s Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa, where she also mentioned that the former president will “live forever with cancer.”
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“Anybody who’s gone through this cancer journey and I’ve been through it many times with members of my family, of course with Beau, it’s constant,” Jill told Ripa. “It’s daily. And I think it’s challenging.”
Joe’s oldest son, Beau Biden, died from brain cancer in 2015. He was 46.
In October 2025, a spokesperson for Joe told PEOPLE that he was undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment. At the time, sources told PEOPLE that he was doing well and responding to treatment.
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