In an interview with the BBC on Friday, former President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, said that his father’s cancer is spreading in what he described as a “very debilitating” and “painful” process.
“It’s really hard,” Hunter Biden told the BBC about his father’s condition in a televised interview. “It’s really sad to watch.”
“I wish he would complain more, because it’s not good. The cancer has spread, it has metastasized into his bones and further. It’s very painful, and it’s very debilitating in many respects but he’s still out there and he’s still doing his thing,” he added.
His remarks come after former first lady Jill Biden told NBC News in June that Biden would live with cancer forever.
“He’s doing OK,” she told “Today Show,” co-host Craig Melvin. “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. And so I think Joe will live with cancer till the rest of his life.”
“That diagnosis can be cured: You can go through radiation or whatever. You can be cured, and you’ll be fine. Unfortunately for Joe, it metastasized to his bones, which means that he will forever live with cancer,” Jill Biden added.
Months after he left office, in May 2025, the former president’s personal office shared that he’d been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
In September 2025, the Biden family shared that Joe Biden had wrapped up a course of radiation therapy and hormone treatment, though it was unclear whether the former president would require more cancer care.
Last year, Joe Biden’s office also shared that he’d undergone surgery to remove cancerous skin cells.
Speaking to the BBC about his father’s cancer, Hunter Biden was emotional, telling the outlet, “He is our rock. He has been there for each one of us in in a way that is hard for me to even possibly articulate and explain.”
In the interview, the former president’s son also spoke about the pardon he was granted from his father just before Joe Biden completed his presidential term, which applied to any crimes committed from Jan. 1, 2014, through Dec. 1, 2024.
At the time, Hunter Biden was facing federal gun charges and had pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges.
On Friday, Hunter Biden said the pardon was, “not fair,” but added, “all I know is that I’m grateful that he did it for me.”
“It’s something that is easily criticized and for good reason,” he said, adding later, “I was the only one in the world that could have gotten what I got from the only person in the world who could give it, my father.”
Previously, on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, Hunter Biden said that his father’s decision to issue a pardon meant that the former president, “chose me over his legacy.”