New details about former US president Joe Biden’s health emerged this week after his son, Hunter Biden, said in a BBC interview that the cancer his father disclosed earlier this year has continued to spread.
In May 2025, four months after leaving office as the oldest sitting president in US history, Joe Biden announced he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had already spread to his bones.
He later began treatment that included radiation and hormone therapy. During an announcement of his upcoming memoir last month, the 83-year-old said the treatment was going “really well.”
But in a wide-ranging interview published with BBC Newsnight, Hunter Biden said the disease has progressed despite those efforts.
“The cancer has spread, metastasised into his bones and further,” Hunter Biden said.
He described the toll the illness is taking, calling it both physically punishing and limiting, while insisting his father remains active.
“It’s very painful, and it’s very debilitating in many respects, but he’s still out there. He’s still doing his thing …he so believes in this country.”
At several points, Hunter Biden became emotional as he spoke about watching his father’s condition worsen.
“It’s really, really hard, and it’s really sad to watch,” he added.
Joe Biden’s health had long drawn scrutiny during his presidency, in part because he was the oldest-ever US president. Even so, at age 81 he chose to seek a second term in 2024.
That campaign ended after a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump in June 2024 and mounting pressure from within the Democratic Party, prompting Biden to withdraw from the presidential race.
Trump later defeated Biden’s replacement candidate, then-vice president Kamala Harris.
