Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Musician Jon Batiste’s Brave Wife, Suleika Jaouad Wife, Is Fighting Leukemia Again, Back in Hospital: Going for Third Bone Marrow Transplant

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We’re all been privy to the saga of musician Jon Batiste and his brave wife, Suleika Jaouad.

She has been battling cancer for some time now, and even wrote a book about surviving it.

But now she writes on her Substack that she’s back in the hospital and awaiting her third bone marrow transplant.

Jaouad writes: “The treatments that have been keeping the leuekemia at bay are no longer doing the trick.”

She says she considered making up a story to explain her absence.

“For a while, I considered telling you that I was being admitted to the hospital for an extremely aggressive course of hair removal. A highly experimental anti-aging procedure was another possibility. I briefly entertained the excuse that I’d be entering witness protection after exposing an underground dog-fighting ring. But I have never been very good at bluffing, so here we are.”

During the summer, Batiste cancelled three shows “due to personal circumstances.” I guess we now why now.

Sending healing thoughts to Suleika. She’s made of tough stuff.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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