Former first lady Jill Biden offered a somber update on former President Joe Biden’s cancer diagnosis, saying the disease and its treatment have taken a noticeable toll on him.
Speaking with “The View” co-host Ana Navarro during a book event covered by Fox News, Jill Biden said the former president’s prostate cancer is stage four and has spread to his bones.
“It’s stage four, and it has metastasized to his bones. So that puts things on a whole different level,” she said.
She added that the illness is not something Biden will simply move past.
“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, now 83, has been undergoing treatment since leaving office. Jill Biden said he still keeps a schedule, but he is not moving at the same pace he once did.
“You know, it takes a toll,” she said. “He keeps his schedule, but he’s slowed down.”
She said his age, the seriousness of the diagnosis and the medications have made daily life harder.
“I mean, 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,” she said.
Questions have lingered about why Biden’s cancer was not detected while he was still in the White House. His team previously said he stopped receiving blood tests for prostate cancer around 2014 because of his age.
Jill Biden also described how the symptoms first became noticeable. She said she saw her husband getting up to use the bathroom as many as seven times a night while he was still president. Still, he did not see a urologist until after leaving the White House.
“I never imagined it would be prostate cancer,” she said. “I just never imagined it.”
The comments came as Jill Biden has been promoting her memoir, “View From the East Wing.” Her media tour has also brought renewed attention to Biden’s health during the 2024 campaign, when Democrats were openly questioning whether he was fit to seek another term.
Biden eventually dropped out of the race after his widely criticized debate performance against President Donald Trump. Jill Biden has said she feared in the moment that her husband might have had a stroke on the debate stage. She has also faced questions about why she praised him at a campaign event afterward, telling supporters that he had answered every question.
Looking back, Jill Biden has acknowledged that, based on what she knows now, her husband could not have served another four years in the White House.
Despite the challenges of treatment, she said the former president remains active. She noted that he recently attended a Democratic Party event in South Dakota.
Jill Biden also described herself as his caretaker, saying much of the responsibility for managing his health now falls on her.
“It’s hard to be a caretaker,” she said. “I have to make sure he gets the right medications.”
She said she speaks with doctors, schedules appointments and makes sure he is eating properly.
During her book tour, Jill Biden has also argued that there is a “double standard” in how the public discusses her husband’s age and cognition compared with Trump’s. Trump is set to turn 80 next week, and if he completes a full term, he will leave office slightly older than Biden was when his presidency ended.
