Biden announces memoir, says cancer treatment ‘going really well’

WASHINGTON – Former US president Joe Biden announced on July 15 the forthcoming publication of a memoir on his time in the White House, and said that his cancer treatment was going “really well”.

In May 2025, just four months after he left office as the oldest sitting president, Biden revealed that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.

He subsequently began radiation therapy.

“Since I left the presidency, I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘Joe, what have you been doing?’” the 83-year-old said in a video on his X account.

“I’ve been spending a lot of time with my family. I’m dealing with a cancer diagnosis, and I’ve been getting treatment, and it’s been going really well,” he said, thanking his well-wishers.

He said his upcoming presidential memoir – Promise Me, America – would be about the “challenges we faced as a nation, about the decisions I made, and why I made them”.

He listed several key moments that marked his 2021-2025 presidency, including the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump, the war in Ukraine and the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

It will also cover “why I chose to run for re-election, and why I chose to step aside”, Biden said.

Despite persistent questions about his health as the oldest-ever US president, Biden, then aged 81, decided to run for a second term in 2024.

Following a disastrous debate performance against Trump in June 2024 and a wave of pressure from Democrats, Biden announced his withdrawal from the race.

Trump went on to beat Biden’s replacement candidate – then Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Trump, who turned 80 in June, will surpass Biden’s age record by the time he leaves office in January 2029.

With a publication date of Nov 17, 2026, Biden’s memoir will be released just a few weeks after the critical midterm elections.

Harris published her own memoir last year. Titled 107 Days, it covers her abbreviated campaign against Trump after Biden dropped out. AFP