Jon Batiste's wife Suleika Jaouad—who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010—shared an update on her cancer journey, revealing she is back in the hospital to undergo a third bone marrow transplant.
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Suleika Jaouad is facing a new challenge.
Amid her yearslong cancer journey, the writer—who married Jon Batiste in 2022—shared that she has returned to the hospital to undergo a third bone marrow transplant.
"Some news from the kingdom of the sick," Jaouad wrote in a Sept. 28 Instagram post. "This week, I’m returning to the hospital for my third bone marrow transplant."
The 38-year-old—who was first diagnosed with leukemia in 2010 before relapsing in December 2021 and again during summer 2024—explained the reason for the surgery as well.
"To put it as plainly as I can, the treatments that have been keeping the leukemia at bay are no longer doing the trick," she continued. "I've known another bone marrow transplant might be in my future. I was hoping the future was in less of a hurry."
Of course, this isn't the first time Jaouad has had to put her faith in a new treatment plan. After all, as she noted, she's "lived with leukemia for more of my adult life, long enough to watch the horizon of what is possible draw closer."
"I've benefited from treatments that didn't exist when I was first diagnosed, from protocols that once sounded experimental," the Between Two Kingdoms author recounted. "Once again, I find myself waiting for the science to catch up to where I am. I need another breakthrough."
And while Jaouad admitted that she was "scared" about the impending transplant, she also emphasized that she has great support system in Batiste, 39, and her medical team.
"I have brilliant doctors I trust with my life," she said. "I have Jon, and my family, and the kind of friends who show up carrying games and flowers and inappropriate jokes. I have four dogs, two peacocks, and fourteen chickens."
Plus, she has her creative work and her own resolve. As Jaouad put it, "I have a plan, and I have a great deal of hope."
She added, "Illness has a way of shrinking life down to the dimensions of the body. I believe creative work makes the world big again."
Suleika Jaouad/Instagram
As for Batiste, the Grammy winner previously shared that he remains prepared for both the ups an downs of Jaouad's health journey.
"Sometimes the cancer will be gone," he told E! News in March 2025. "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."
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