'Debilitating': Hunter Biden speaks out about father Joe Biden's cancer

Hunter Biden, the younger son of former United States President Joe Biden, has offered an update on his father's cancer diagnosis in a wide-ranging interview that also reflected on some of the more controversial moments of the Biden presidency.

In a Friday night appearance on the BBC show Newsnight, Hunter Biden told host Paddy O'Connell that his father's condition was "debilitating".

"It's really hard, Paddy, and it's really sad to watch," the younger Biden said.

"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. The cancer has spread. It's metastasized into his bones and further. It's very painful."

In May 2025, the former president revealed that, days earlier, during a physical exam, doctors had discovered he was suffering from an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had already spread to his bones.

O'Connell asked Hunter Biden whether he watched his father's now-infamous debate. The younger Biden responded that he had viewed it alone in a room in his house in California.

"Like everybody else, I was shocked," he said. "I could tell as soon as my father came out that something was wrong. I've never seen him with kind of the hundred-yard stare that he had."

Like his stepmother Jill, Hunter Biden framed the incident as an anomaly: "The reason that was so shocking is because it had never happened before, and it hasn't happened since."

He also speculated that the Democratic leader's cancer diagnosis the following year may have contributed to his debate performance.

"Nine months later, he was diagnosed with stage-four prostate cancer and stage-four metastatic bone cancer, none of which we knew," he said.

O'Connell presented that allegation to Hunter Biden in their interview. In response, the younger Biden acknowledged that the pardons were controversial.

"Was it good for our Constitution? Was it good for the American people? Was it good for my dad's legacy? No, on all counts," he said. "It's something that is easily criticised and for good reason, and I can't pretend otherwise."

But Hunter added that his father's fears about Trump have been borne out.

"I think that Donald Trump has proven to be exactly who my dad thought he was going to be, as it relates to the revenge and retribution that he would seek on his political enemies," he said.