Hunter Biden revealed in a BBC interview that former President Joe Biden's prostate cancer has metastasized into his bones, describing the condition as painful and debilitating, a grim update on a diagnosis first announced in May 2025.
The younger Biden spoke to BBC Newsnight about his father's worsening health, confirming that the cancer detected just four months after Joe Biden left the White House has now spread well beyond the original site. Hunter Biden did not specify which bones or additional areas of the body are affected, but his description left little room for optimism.
Joe Biden received his prostate cancer diagnosis in May 2025 after doctors found a small nodule during a routine exam. At the time, the cancer was classified as an aggressive form of the disease, though it initially appeared hormone-sensitive. Biden received a Gleason score of 9, a grading scale that runs from 6 to 10, with higher numbers indicating cancer cells are more abnormal and more likely to spread. A score of 9 places a patient near the top of that scale.
Now, roughly fifteen months later, the prognosis has darkened considerably.
In the BBC Newsnight interview, Hunter Biden told the interviewer plainly what the family is facing:
"The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further. It's very painful, and it's very debilitating in many respects."
He went further, offering an emotional window into how the illness has affected the Biden family. Hunter described his father as "our rock" and "the center of our family," the Washington Examiner reported.
But it was another line from the interview that carried the sharpest weight. Hunter said he wished his father would be more open about his suffering.
"It's really sad to watch. The only thing that I'd say about my dad about his health right now is I wish he would complain more, because it's not good."
That remark, from a son who has publicly weathered his own legal and personal crises, suggests the former president's condition may be worse than what even the family has shared publicly. No statement from Joe Biden's medical team accompanied Hunter's disclosure, and no independent confirmation from Biden's doctors has surfaced.
The Biden family has faced mounting questions about Joe Biden's health for years, dating back to his final stretch in the White House. Those questions now carry a different and far more serious dimension.
When prostate cancer metastasizes, spreading from the prostate to distant bones or organs, the medical outlook shifts dramatically. Fox News reported that the five-year survival rate for metastatic prostate cancer drops to approximately 37%, a steep fall from the near-100% rate for cancers caught early and confined to the prostate.
Biden's Gleason score of 9 placed him in a high-risk category from the start. That the cancer has now reached his bones, and, per Hunter's account, spread "further" still, means the former president is dealing with Stage 4 disease that has moved past the point where localized treatment alone can address it.
None of the available reporting identifies what treatment Biden is currently receiving, whether he has undergone chemotherapy, radiation, hormone therapy, or some combination. His medical team has not commented publicly on the metastasis Hunter described.
That silence raises a fair question: why is the public learning about the former president's worsening cancer from his son in a BBC interview rather than from Biden's own physicians? The Biden White House faced sharp criticism over its handling of Biden's health disclosures while he was still in office. Jill Biden herself faulted the White House medical team for failing to catch the cancer earlier. That pattern, information trickling out through family members rather than through transparent medical briefings, appears to be continuing.
AP News reported that despite his serious illness, Joe Biden remains publicly active and plans to publish a memoir titled "Promise Me, America." Hunter Biden indicated his father continues to speak out on issues important to him, even as the cancer takes a visible toll.
That decision to stay in the public eye while battling metastatic cancer is Biden's to make. But it also means the public has a legitimate interest in knowing the full scope of his condition, particularly given how long questions about his cognitive and physical fitness went unanswered during his presidency.
Hunter Biden's own public profile has been turbulent. He has spoken in recent months about his father's pardon and its effect on the family, as well as personal security concerns after losing his Secret Service detail. His willingness to discuss his father's cancer on international television suggests the family may be preparing the public for a further decline.
Breitbart noted that Hunter described the situation as "really, really hard" and "really sad to watch," adding that his father is "still out there" despite the pain. The picture that emerges is of a former president whose body is failing him even as he resists stepping fully out of public life.
Hunter Biden has also raised concerns about his own vulnerability in recent months, including claims about the removal of his Secret Service protection. The family's struggles, legal, political, and now medical, have become a recurring chapter in post-Biden Washington.
Several basic facts remain unknown. When exactly the BBC interview took place is unclear. Whether Biden's oncologists have confirmed Hunter's characterization of the metastasis is unknown. What specific treatment Biden is receiving, if any, has not been disclosed. And the phrase "and further", Hunter's description of where the cancer has spread beyond the bones, has not been explained.
For a family that spent years deflecting questions about Joe Biden's fitness, the lack of a formal medical update is consistent but no longer defensible. The man held the presidency. He is now battling an aggressive cancer that, by his own son's account, is spreading and causing serious pain. The public deserves more than secondhand disclosures on a British news program.
As we previously reported, Hunter's revelation marked the first public confirmation that the cancer had reached Biden's bones, a significant escalation from the initial diagnosis.
Whatever one thinks of Joe Biden's record, cancer is not a political matter. But transparency about a former president's health is. The Biden family has had years to learn that lesson. They still haven't.
