Former President Joe Biden is speaking out after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
“Cancer touches us all,” he captioned an Instagram post on Monday, May 19. “Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support.”
The politician, 82, shared a selfie with his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, who held a cat in her arms in the photo. Well-wishes flooded the comments section, including a message from Today show personality Jill Martin, who wrote, “Sending love and prayers.”
News broke of Joe’s diagnosis on Sunday, May 18. “Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms,” read a statement from his personal office to CNN. “On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone.”
The statement continued, “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive, which allows for effective management.”
Joe and his family were “reviewing treatment options with his physicians,” per the statement.
The former first couple share daughter Ashley, while Joe shared daughter Naomi, son Hunter and late son Beau with late first wife Neilia Biden. Beau was 46 years old when he died in 2015 after battling brain cancer.
“He knew his time was up and, one night, we were having dinner at our home before he was hospitalized, and he said, ‘Dad, can we talk?'” Joe recalled in an April 2024 interview with Howard Stern. “He said, ‘Promise me that you won’t leave public life [and public office]. I know when I go, you’ll want to quit. Give me your word as a Biden.’ … I gave him my word.”
Following news of Joe’s own health battle, former President Barack Obama issued a heartfelt message of support. (Joe served as Obama’s vice president throughout two terms in the White House from 2009 to 2017.)
“Michelle and I are thinking of the entire Biden family. Nobody has done more to find breakthrough treatments for cancer in all its forms than Joe, and I am certain he will fight this challenge with his trademark resolve and grace. We pray for a fast and full recovery,” Obama tweeted on Sunday.
Meghan McCain also sent her best to the Biden family nearly 10 years after sharing an emotional moment with Joe on The View in the wake of the late John McCain‘s 2017 brain tumor diagnosis.
“Cancer is the absolute worst. It is hell,” she wrote via X on Sunday. “It is incredibly difficult for any family, anywhere that has to deal with it. Wishing nothing but healing, prayers, light and strength to President Biden and his family.”
She concluded, “I don’t believe times like these are appropriate for politics.”
