Former first lady Dr. Jill Biden has offered a detailed account of the warning sign that preceded her husband’s cancer diagnosis, telling a SiriusXM podcast on Wednesday that former President Joe Biden was waking as often as seven times a night in the months before doctors caught the disease.
Speaking on “Let’s Talk Off Camera With Kelly Ripa,” the former first lady, 75, described a nighttime pattern that had troubled her while the couple still lived in the White House. She told Ripa she brought the issue to the president’s physicians but received no diagnosis at the time, which led her to think it had been addressed.
Joe Biden, now 83, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in May 2025, months after leaving office. The disease had already spread to his bones by the time it was found, a development that Jill Biden said will shape the rest of his life.
A Symptom That Went Unaddressed
The former first lady said she became privately alarmed while watching her husband’s nighttime routine change. She recalled thinking, “He’s getting up seven times a night.” She said she flagged the issue to the White House Medical Unit but that no diagnosis emerged, leaving her to believe the concern had been managed.
According to the Mayo Clinic, prostate cancer often produces no symptoms in its early stages. As it advances, urinary problems can surface, including a need to wake more frequently during the night to use the restroom — precisely the pattern Jill Biden described noticing.
The former first lady said the physicians were following guidance from the American Urological Association (AUA), which recommends against routine screening for the disease in men over 70 given its usually slow progression. As a result, she said, her husband was not given a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, the standard blood screen. After leaving the White House in January 2025 and noticing the pattern hadn’t stopped, she insisted on getting a second opinion.
She told Ripa that she urged her husband to see a specialist in Philadelphia after the symptoms persisted following their departure from the White House, she told “Live With Kelly and Mark” co-host Kelly Ripa, referring to a trip to Philadelphia. The former first lady said she never anticipated the answer would be prostate cancer.
Living With a Stage 4 Diagnosis
The former first lady said that because the cancer had spread to his bones, her husband will live with the disease permanently rather than achieve a cure. She described a rigorous schedule of testing and treatment every three months that has become part of their daily lives.
The former first lady said she has walked a similar road before. Beau Biden, the president’s oldest son from his first marriage, died in 2015 of glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive brain cancer. She referenced that loss when discussing the toll a cancer diagnosis takes on family members.
Ripa rejected the idea that the Biden family hid the president’s medical condition while he was in office. She shared that her own father received his diagnosis only after a car accident uncovered bone cancer, suggesting the illness might have remained undetected otherwise. Ripa observed that because routine screening isn’t recommended for men over 70, the disease can develop silently over many years before metastasizing.
An Earlier Account and a Memoir
The former first lady had touched on the diagnosis before, in an interview with CBS News correspondent Rita Braver for “CBS News Sunday Morning” that aired earlier this year. In a preview clip released May 29, she called the diagnosis “shocking,” saying she felt the family had received excellent care in the White House but that the illness had somehow been missed.
A spokesperson confirmed in the fall of 2025 that the former president was undergoing radiation therapy and hormone treatment. In September 2025, a spokesperson also confirmed that he had undergone Mohs surgery, a procedure used to treat skin cancer.
In the earlier CBS interview, the former first lady also discussed her husband’s poor performance against President Donald Trump at the CNN presidential debate in 2024. She described feeling frightened while watching him struggle to complete his responses and said she worried he might be having a stroke. She made these comments before the June 2 release of her memoir, “View from the East Wing,” which recounts her perspective on the Biden presidency.
Jill Biden has faced accusations that she pressed her husband to remain in the 2024 race despite calls from Democratic leaders for him to withdraw after the debate. The president ultimately left the contest and endorsed Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in the general election. Overall, the former first lady said her husband is doing okay.
