Former President Joe Biden is setting the record straight on rumors he intentionally hid his prostate cancer diagnosis while in the White House.
“A lot of people do that. They hide bad news from the public if they’re elected officials. I didn’t do that,” Biden, 83, told People in a Wednesday, November 11, profile. “We let the public know when I found out, when I knew what was going on.”
Biden announced in May 2025 that he was diagnosed with an “aggressive” form of prostate cancer that had metastasized to his bones. (Biden’s four-year term as the president of the United States ended in January 2025 upon Donald Trump’s inauguration.)
“I think it’s important for a national leader, as president, to let people know they go through some of the very same things that a lot of American people are going through,” Biden stated. “I wasn’t hiding it at all.”
During his time in the Oval Office, Biden admittedly “never felt the toll” of his illness or any symptoms.
“I read [others] like Harry Truman talk about [how] it’s the most difficult job in the world. I didn’t find it that way,” he recalled of serving as commander in chief. “And so I, quite frankly, found that it didn’t in any way interfere with my job.”
Since leaving the White House, Biden completed radiation and is currently undergoing hormone therapy.
“I’m not saying I’ll live forever, but the point is that I have all my faculties, I have access to all the things I had before and I feel good,” he told People, which reported that Biden stated in his upcoming Promise Me, America memoir that he’s fighting the disease “like hell” thanks to an exemplary medical team.
“It looks very positive. There’s a lot of people who’ve been diagnosed with cancer, particularly the kind of cancer I have, who live long lives, who live for another 10, 20 years,” he noted of his cancer battle. “And so far, the two tests that have been done show that the cancer is not metastasized beyond what it already was … There are eight different pills I take a day.”
Through his ongoing treatment for stage IV cancer, Joe has wife Dr. Jill Biden by his side.
“My days are making sure he eats right. Does he exercise? Is he taking the right medicine? Did I talk to the doctor?” Jill, 75, acknowledged to People of her “emotionally, physically hard” duty as a caregiver. “We’re on a new journey.”
