RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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President Joe Biden, wearing a Team USA jacket and walking with his son Hunter Biden, heads toward Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on the way to Camp David on July 26, 2024. —Susan Walsh—AP
Former President Joe Biden ’s cancer has spread “further,” his son Hunter Biden told the BBC on Friday.
In an interview on Newsnight , Hunter Biden described how difficult it was to see his 83-year-old father battling the disease, which was first shared with the public in May 2025.
“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” he said. “It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects.”
Hunter Biden did not elaborate on where else the cancer had spread, and the former President’s office has not publicly disclosed additional details about the extent of the disease.
Joe Biden had surgery to remove skin cancer lesions in September last year and completed a round of radiation therapy for prostate cancer in October.
As his wife, Jill Biden, told Kelly Ripa last week on the podcast Let’s Talk Off Camera With Kelly Ripa , their family understands that the disease will be part of his life for the rest of his life.
“He will live forever with cancer,” she told Ripa. “It’s daily. And I think it’s challenging.”
Hunter Biden also acknowledged to host Paddy O’Connell that his father’s well-being may have been affected by the strain that his struggles with addiction, and their consequences, brought.
“Maybe you shouldn't have allowed your dad to run,” O’Connell said, suggesting that these serious concerns might have been a distraction from the demands of the office.
“The idea that I allow my father to do anything, to this very day, is laughable to me,” Hunter Biden said, while insisting that he fully supports his father, knowing that he always made his decisions with their family and the American public in mind. “There is no taking the keys away from a President.”
“Where were you when your father failed to complete a sentence on prime-time television,” O’Connell said, alluding to Biden’s widely criticized debate with Donald Trump, which set the stage for him stepping down as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024.
Hunter Biden said that he was watching and that he found the moment “shocking,” adding: “I also know that he obviously had cancer. Whether it was impacting him or not, nine months later he was diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer and Stage 4 metastatic bone cancer—none of which we knew.”
According to a statement issued at the time, Joe Biden was diagnosed “with prostate cancer, with a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.” Despite the aggressive diagnosis, the former President’s office also said that the cancer “appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”
Jill Biden said in an interview with CBS’s Sunday Morning in May 2026 that the diagnosis had come as a surprise , explaining that men over 70 are not routinely screened for prostate cancer since it’s usually a “slow-growing cancer” and the harms of repeat screenings can outweigh the good. She added, "I do feel we had amazing care in the White House, but somehow that was missed."
Hunter Biden insisted that, despite leaving the Oval Office, his father’s work is not yet done.
Joe Biden remains “out there,” speaking publicly about the issues that are important to him, his son insisted.
“He’s still doing his thing,” he said. “He so believes in this country.”
That included appearing as a keynote speaker at the Maryland Democratic Party Gala in June.
“As long as he’s alive,” his son said, “I promise you, he is going to continue to fight.”
Hunter Biden’s convictions and presidential pardon
In June 2024, while his father began in earnest to pursue a second term, Hunter Biden was convicted of three felonies related to purchasing and possessing a firearm while addicted to a controlled substance. He also pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges , including failure to pay $1.4 million from 2016 to 2019.
Weeks before leaving office and following repeated assurances on the campaign trail that he would not do so, then-President Joe Biden made the controversial choice to pardon his son for what he considered unfair and politically motivated persecution.
“From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively and unfairly prosecuted,” Biden wrote on Dec. 1, 2024, in announcing his change of heart.
He granted Hunter Biden a “full and unconditional pardon” for any criminal acts committed or alleged going back 10 years. On his final day in office, he also preemptively pardoned several family members, including his brother, James Biden, citing fear of retaliation against his family from the incoming Trump Administration.
The decision drew substantial criticism from both sides of the aisle, which Hunter Biden acknowledged to O’Connell.
“Was it good for our Constitution? Was it good for the American people? Was it good for my dad’s legacy? No, on all counts,” he said. “It’s something that is easily criticized, and for good reason, and I can’t pretend otherwise.”
However, he added that his father’s concerns about the incoming President were likely well-founded.
“I think that Donald Trump has proven to be exactly who my dad thought he was going to be, as it relates to the revenge and retribution that he would seek on his political enemies,” he said.
The Biden family’s history with cancer
The Bidens have long advocated for comprehensive cancer research. Joe Biden’s eldest son, Beau, whom he had with his first wife Neilia Hunter Biden, died of glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer, in 2015.
“Cancer uses every tool at its disposal — it hides from the immune system, builds its own blood supply, uses viruses to spread, engineers a friendly cellular environment to support its survival and growth, and knows how to spread through the...
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