Dr. Jill Biden said on June 2, 2026, that her husband, former President Joe Biden, will live with stage four prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones for the remainder of his life, a condition she described as relentless and life-altering during an appearance on “The View.”
The former first lady, 74, told co-host Ana Navarro that Joe Biden, 83, is “doing OK” despite the diagnosis, which was first made in May 2025 after he reported urinary symptoms to his doctors. His office disclosed at the time that the cancer had already spread.
“It’s hard, it’s hard. It’s stage four, it’s in his bones, but he’s keeping up his schedule, he’s going to D.C. on Amtrak a couple of times a month, he’s speaking at Democratic rallies, he’s writing, so he’s active, he’s Joe,” she said. “As probably everyone in this audience knows — because I’m sure you’ve all been touched by cancer — it’s hard.”
Jill Biden appeared on the ABC daytime program to promote her new memoir, “View from the East Wing,” one day after she gave a similarly grim update to Craig Melvin on the “Today” show on June 1, 2026.
Defending the Decision to Stay In
During both interviews, Jill Biden addressed the most pivotal night of her husband’s political career: the June 27, 2024, debate against then-candidate Donald Trump. His halting performance that evening accelerated calls within the Democratic Party for Joe Biden to abandon his reelection bid. He initially intended to run for a second term but withdrew in July 2024. Vice President Kamala Harris secured the Democratic nomination and lost to Trump that November.
She told Melvin she had received no warnings from her husband’s medical team before that night.
“No one ever came to me and said, ‘Jill, Joe’s aging,’ or, ‘Something’s wrong,'” she said. “When all Americans saw that moment on TV at the debate, I mean, I was out of my mind, because I thought, ‘Oh my god, he’s having a stroke.'”
In passages from her memoir, she wrote that watching her husband onstage felt like watching “an AI hologram of the man we knew, and the hologram was glitching,” and wondered whether he had been drugged. She recounted that when the couple walked offstage, Joe Biden turned to her and said, “I really messed up, didn’t I?” She replied, “Yeah, Joe, you did.” The campaign held three more events that night, with the president delivering speeches at each.
When asked why she did not press her husband to step aside sooner, Jill Biden told Melvin it had to be his decision. She pushed back on critics — including actor George Clooney and former special counsel Robert Hur — who had publicly questioned the president’s fitness for office, saying her husband had aged the way anyone in his 80s ages.
“He aged. He did. He got older, and we all saw him aging,” she said. “There were the words that he would forget. But we were all aging.”
However, when asked whether she still believed her husband could have served four more years, she conceded the answer had changed.
“Well, not from what I know now,” she said. “I mean, my God, who knew? I mean, it was so shocking to get that cancer diagnosis. I was looking through travel magazines, like, ‘Oh, where are we going to go? What are we going to do?’ And then we get this cancer diagnosis, and I think, ‘What am I doing? Our whole life is changed now.'”
A Diagnosis That Changed Everything
When the Bidens announced the diagnosis in May 2025, his office described the disease as “hormone-sensitive,” which it said allowed for “effective management.” But the cancer is among the most aggressive forms of the disease, and Dr. Matthew Smith of Massachusetts General Brigham Cancer Center has said patients with metastatic prostate cancer typically live four to five years. Joe Biden completed a round of radiation therapy after the diagnosis was made public.
Speaking on the “Today” show on June 1, 2026, Jill Biden told Melvin that the metastasis fundamentally altered the prognosis.
“Craig, you’ve been through this with your brother; you know how tough it is,” she said. “And 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.”
She also offered a pointed explanation for how a sitting president, with access to the best medical care in the world, could have a cancer progress undetected. The Bidens’ physicians, she said, followed American Urology Association guidelines that recommend against routine prostate-specific antigen screening for men older than 70. No PSA test was done.