Even in hard times, Jon Batiste knows he can lean on love.
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, whose wife, Suleika Jaouad, is battling cancer, shared new photos of the couple on social media amid Jaouad's treatment.
Jaouad shared an update on Aug. 2
, telling followers that her leukemia was "progressing" and, as a result, the 38-year-old author and journalist would be undergoing a "more intensive regimen of chemo."She was first diagnosed with cancer at age 22 and experienced a recurrence in 2021 after being in remission for a decade. Jaouad learned in August 2024 that her cancer had returned for a third time.
Batiste's Oct. 25 Instagram post shows the couple cozying up for a pair of selfies, which appears
to show them inside a hospital room.
Jaouad, whose hair has fallen out amid treatment, leans her head on Batiste's shoulder in one photo while the singer wears a white face mask. The next snap shows Jaouad puckering up for a kiss on the cheek.
"The kids doing alright today," Batiste, 39, captioned the post. "And still madly in love 🙏🏾"
Batiste's health update comes two months after the musician canceled three shows, citing "personal circumstances."
Batiste and Jaouad first met as teenagers while attending a music camp. The couple married in 2022.
The pair documented the highs and lows of Jaouad's cancer journey in the Oscar-nominated 2023 documentary "American Symphony," which chronicles Batiste's writing of a symphony while Jaouad undergoes treatment.
"There's real power when we dare to share our most unvarnished moments," Jaouad said in a November 2023 interview with USA TODAY following the film's release. "I just hoped this all might offer a sense of companionship to someone in the midst of treatment, or someone who knows someone who is."
Despite Jaouad's ongoing health struggles, Batiste opened up about his wife's resilience in an October 2025 USA TODAY interview.
"She's doing well in that she's doing treatment indefinitely," Batiste said. "But she's very much 100% living her life. You wouldn't even know what she was going through. The Bible says life and death is in the power of the tongue, and we speak life in this house."
Contributing: KiMi Robinson, Marco della Cava and Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jon Batiste shares health update on wife's cancer battle with sweet selfie
