Hunter Biden, son of former president Joe Biden, opened up about his father’s prostate cancer, saying he has been in a lot of pain as the disease has spread.
In a wide-ranging interview Friday with “BBC Newsnight,” Biden said that it has been “really sad to watch” his father suffer. The cancer has spread and “metastasized into his bones and further,” he said.
He said that despite that, Joe Biden has continued to speak out in public about issues that he cares about.
“He so believes in this country,” Hunter Biden said. “And as long as he is alive, I promise you, he is going to continue to fight.”
He also discussed his feelings about receiving a presidential pardon from his father, saying that it was not good for the country.
BBC correspondent Paddy O’Connell pressed Biden on whether he thought his father went “too far as a dad” in issuing a pardon to his son. In December 2024, as one of his final acts as president, Joe Biden issued a full and unconditional pardon for his son despite having previously promised not to intervene in Hunter Biden’s legal problems.
Hunter Biden said it was “not fair” and that he is “the most privileged person in the world” as it related to getting that kind of treatment from a father and president.
“Was it good for our constitution? Was it good for the American people? Was it good for my dad’s legacy?” he asked. “No. On all counts.”
However, Biden said they did not discuss the pardon before it happened. He is “eternally grateful for it because I think Donald Trump has proven to be exactly who my dad thought he was going to be, as it relates to revenge and retribution.”
Critics had a good reason to lambaste the move, Hunter Biden said. But then he asked: “What would you have thought of my dad if he did not do it for me?”
After steering clear of the spotlight during much of his father’s presidency, Hunter Biden has in recent months taken on a higher public profile, including engaging on social media with critics and supporters alike and granting media interviews, including one with right-wing podcaster Candace Owens.
In the BBC interview, O’Connell also asked the former president’s son if his years-long descent into drugs, alcohol and legal issues “precipitated more decline” for Joe Biden’s health.
“This is a very difficult thing to talk to you about,” O’Connell said. “But do you think you made life worse and the health worse for Joe Biden?”
After a pause, Biden responded: “Of course I did.”
The former president refused to shut the door on him or let him go, his son said, but the stress took a toll.
“My dad never let me off the hook,” he said. “But what my dad did was always make it clear that, when I was ready to come back, the door was open.”
In response to questions about his father’s controversial decision to seek a second term, Biden said that he wielded no influence over Joe Biden, nor did anyone. He was, however, just as shocked as everyone at the former president’s state during the June 2024 debate with Trump, during which Joe Biden struggled to finish sentences.
“I could tell as soon as my father came out that something was wrong,” Hunter Biden said. “I have never seen him with kind of the hundred-yard stare that he had.”
In May 2025, Joe Biden’s office revealed that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 prostate cancer that had metastasized to his bones.