Jon Batiste reflects on wife Suleika Jaouad's cancer battle in candid conversation with Today’s Willie Geist
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Jon Batiste recently opened up about his wife Suleika Jaouad's courageous battle with cancer during a heartfelt interview on 'Today' with Willie Geist.
The couple's extraordinary love story, prominently featured in Batiste's latest film, 'American Symphony,' has been captivating audiences on Netflix since its release on November 24.
In a revealing interview on Sunday Sitdown on December 3, Batiste delved into the making of the film.
Originally intended to document the creation process of his symphony, the focus shifted dramatically when Batiste and Jaouad received news of her leukemia recurrence.
The documentary beautifully captures their journey, providing a poignant and intimate portrayal of their relationship.
Beyond the film, the five-time Grammy winner also shared insights into his new Grammy-nominated album, 'World Music Radio,' and reflected on his upbringing in a legendary New Orleans music family.
Jon Batiste opens up about life with wife Suleika Jaouad on ‘Today’
During a recent appearance on ‘Today’ with Willie Geist, Jon Batiste opened up about his life with wife Suleika Jaouad.
In a 2012 column for The New York Times, Jaouad revealed that she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia at the age of 22.
Despite initially going into remission, she shared the unfortunate news in December 2021 that her leukemia had returned.
During the interview with Geist, Batiste expressed his intention to incorporate Jaouad's cancer battle into the film.
He wanted to provide viewers with a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their lives, offering a more comprehensive and authentic portrayal of their experiences.
He said, “We decided to keep filming because it’s bigger than us at a certain point when the cameras are rolling.”
Batiste continued, “We realized for her it’s a way to show the narrative of what a sick individual goes through, unvarnished. This is in the midst of not knowing if we’re going to come out on the other side."
He added, "And ultimately for me, it was a way to show, as a caretaker and also an artist, and as a creator, how art and creativity, for anybody, can become a survival mechanism."
‘American Symphony’ was released on Netflix on November 24, offering viewers an intimate behind-the-scenes glimpse into Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad's love life, particularly as they navigated through the challenges of her leukemia recurrence.
In the documentary's trailer, Batiste expressed his admiration for Suleika, stating, "I'm always in awe of Suleika, how she deals with hardships," as the footage showed him seemingly in prayer near her hospital bed.
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The trailer for ‘American Symphony’ not only featured glimpses of Batiste's significant victories at the 2022 Grammys but also depicted the emotional challenges faced by Jaouad in her battle against cancer.
"We've both had so many good things happening and so many incredibly hard things. I honestly don’t know how to hold such extremes.” Jaouad shared in the trailer.
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Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad’s relationship timeline
According to Suleika Jaouad, she and Jon Batiste first met when she was 13 and he was 14.
In an Instagram post from August 2020, she humorously described their initial encounter as "awkward," given the setting: band camp.
During her hospitalization, Batiste, who was already gaining recognition in his music career, visited Jaouad.
She shared in a statement, "My friend Jon Batiste, an internationally acclaimed jazz musician whom I’d first met at a music camp as a teenager, came to visit me in the hospital. To my surprise, he showed up with his entire band, made up of Ibanda Ruhumbika, a tuba player; Eddie Barbash, an alto saxophonist; and Joe Saylor, a drummer. They call themselves the Stay Human Band."
In February 2022, the couple decided to tie the knot, a few months after Jaouad shared that she was undergoing chemotherapy and had a scheduled bone marrow transplant.
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They opted for a "last-minute" wedding, as revealed by Jaouad on Instagram.
The intimate ceremony took place at their home, a place that held special significance for them.
Batiste explained to People that their house felt like "a temple" and had been a source of replenishment for their souls.
He shared, "It really has been a place where we go and it replenishes our soul. We built something very, very special. It’s the combination of both of us. Our time there has helped to level a lot of what’s happening. We got married in that house."
The decision to keep the wedding small was intentional, with only close family in attendance.
Batiste noted that it occurred the day before Jaouad's bone marrow transplant, making it a profound moment in their lives.
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He said, “It was just close family. It was one of those things that we did the day before her bone marrow transplant. It was a very deep time in our lives, obviously for so many reasons. All the time that we put into building this house — it’s been three years that we’ve been renovating, building and finding furniture and doing all these things to make it just right, so it’s a beautiful combination of all that.”
The couple walked down the aisle together just one month before Batiste achieved significant success at the 2022 Grammys.
That year, he secured five awards, including the prestigious Album of the Year, recognizing his exceptional work on his sixth studio album, ‘We Are.’
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