Hunter Biden said former President Joe Biden is living in pain as he battles cancer, but that hasn’t stopped him from “doing his thing.”

“The cancer has spread, is metastasized into his bones, and further, it’s very painful, and it’s very debilitating in many respects,” Hunter Biden said of his father in an interview with the BBC. “But he’s still out there. He’s still doing his thing.”

Joe Biden’s office announced in May 2025 that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had metastasized to the bone. The diagnosis came after a small nodule was found in the former president’s prostate after “a routine physical exam,” his office said.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health.

Joe Biden has done few media appearances since leaving office but has appeared at some public events and delivered keynote speeches. 

Hunter Biden said his father’s cancer battle is “really, really hard and it’s really sad to watch” of his father’s condition. “The only thing that I say about my dad, about his health right now, is I wish he would complain more because it’s not good.”

But he said Joe Biden is motivated by his belief “in the exact opposite of … that we are as polarized as we think we are.”

“Because when he ran in 2020, 81 million people, more people than have ever voted for another person for president in the history of this country came out and decided that they were going to return things to normalcy,” Hunter Biden said. “Well, we got to get back in the fight again. And as long as he’s alive, I promise you he’s going to continue to fight.”

Hunter Biden called his father “the rock” in his family.

“He has been there for each one of us in a way that is hard for me to even possibly articulate and explain,” he said. “And whatever you think about his politics or the decisions that he made, I can tell you this: He’s the best father, the best husband, the best grandfather of anyone that I’ve ever read about, heard about, or even seen in a movie.”