Jon Batiste shared wonderful news that his wife, Suleika Jaouad, is in “remission” after being diagnosed with leukemia for a third time.
“She’s doing great,” Batiste, 38, told E! in an interview published on Monday, March 17.
The former Late Show With Stephen Colbert bandleader confirmed that Jaouad, 36, responded well to treatment after being diagnosed with cancer once again in September 2024.
“Now, she has this beautiful remission,” he added. “That’s been the case for the last few months, and we’re just hoping that it remains that way. She’s been taking everything in stride and gracefully dealing with all of the things that are going on.”
Batiste confirmed he was planning on accompanying Jaouad on her five-date book tour to promote her self-help guide The Book of Alchemy, beginning April 23 at Miller Theatre in Philadelphia.
“She’s able to continue to paint, continue to write,” Jon confirmed. “All this is happening after this crazy recurrence, and it’s just the best-case scenario. She’s feeling healthy. The treatment is working and we’re very inspired.”
Jaouad was originally diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2010 and given a slim chance of survival, but she defied the odds by going into remission. The author wrote about her first cancer battle in her 2021 memoir Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, which became a New York Times Bestseller.
After a recurrence of the disease in 2021, Jaouad underwent her second bone marrow transplant. Unfortunately, she confirmed last September that doctors found “a very small amount of leukemia in [her] marrow.”
“In the last month, I’ve been taking things day-by-day — really, hour-by-hour, given how the side effects of chemo come and go,” she wrote via her blog in September 2024. “Living that way sometimes takes on a white-knuckling-it feeling, like you’re doing everything you can to muscle through. For respite from that grind and from the ongoingness of illness, I’ve turned to something that, exactly two years ago, we began practicing as a community: noticing and cultivating small joys.”
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Jaouad wrote about how supportive Batiste was throughout her health setback, revealing that he lifted her spirits by “shimmying his hips, finger twirling [and] full-on gyrating” every time her nurse’s back was turned.
In his new interview, Batiste insisted that he and Jaouad understand that her cancer journey is a “process” and thus they are prepared for any changes.
“It goes through these different moments of treatments that are indefinite for her, it won’t stop. It will continue until there’s some innovation. We know that,” he said. “Sometimes the cancer will be gone, other times, we’ll have to deal with what comes when it comes back and that’s just a part of our life. I support her in that.”
The musician went on: “[Cancer] tests you. We all have these things that challenge us to build our character and strengthen our relationships … It’s actually strengthened our relationship and connection because we already were close.”
Batiste and Jaouad have known each other since they attended the same band camp as teenagers. The couple got married just one day before Jaouad received a bone marrow transplant in February 2022.
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