A deeply personal interview has provided a troubling new glimpse into the health challenges facing a former president as his family continues to rally around him.
His son became emotional while discussing the situation, describing what the family has been witnessing behind closed doors and acknowledging that the experience has been difficult to watch.
Former President Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread further through his body and is causing significant pain, according to his son Hunter Biden, who discussed his 83-year-old father’s condition during an interview with BBC Newsnight published Friday.
“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” Hunter Biden told interviewer Paddy O’Connell.
“It’s really sad to watch,” he added.
Hunter described the disease as “very painful” and “very debilitating” as his father continues undergoing treatment.
“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,” Hunter said.
Biden announced in May 2025, several months after leaving the White House, that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had already metastasized to his bones.
His office said at the time that the cancer appeared to be “hormone-sensitive,” which would allow doctors to pursue treatments aimed at managing the disease.
Despite the progression described by Hunter, he said his father remains active and continues following public affairs.
“He’s still doing his thing,” Hunter said. “He so believes in this country.”
Former first lady Jill Biden offered a similar assessment during a June appearance on “The View,” acknowledging that things had “slowed down” for her husband since his diagnosis while saying he remained busy.
Hunter called his father the “best father, the best husband, the best grandfather” and said the former president remains at the “center of our family.”
The interview also turned to Hunter’s years-long battle with drug addiction and the toll he believes it took on his father.
When O’Connell asked whether his addiction had made Joe Biden’s life and health worse, Hunter answered, “Of course I did.”
“That’s what addiction does,” Hunter said.
Hunter said his struggles affected Jill Biden, his children, other relatives and personal relationships, “but, in particular, to my dad, who never let go.”
“My dad never let me off the hook,” Hunter said, while recalling that his father also made clear that “when I was ready to come back, the door was open.”
“That is the singular thing that saved me — that the door was left open,” he said.
Hunter also rejected the idea that families must necessarily allow someone suffering from addiction to reach “rock bottom.”
“A lot of people always say that you’ve got to let an addict hit rock-bottom,” Hunter said, adding that people he knew who reached that point were “either dead or in jail.”
Hunter’s addiction, including his use of crack cocaine, has been publicly documented for years and was discussed extensively in his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things.”
The struggle came after another devastating chapter for the Biden family when Joe Biden’s eldest son, Beau Biden, died from brain cancer in 2015 at age 46.
“Unconditional love doesn’t mean love without consequences,” Hunter said. “It doesn’t mean love without accountability.”
Hunter also reflected on his father’s June 2024 presidential debate against Donald Trump, a performance that intensified questions about Biden’s age and fitness and contributed to mounting Democratic pressure for him to abandon his reelection campaign.
“I knew something was wrong,” Hunter said, describing himself as “shocked” while watching the debate from California, The Hill reported.
Biden ultimately withdrew from the presidential race on July 21, 2024, and has maintained a relatively limited public profile since leaving office, although he has occasionally delivered political speeches and is preparing a memoir expected around the November midterm elections.
