Jon Batiste Secretly Married Suleika Jaouad The Day Before Bone Marrow Transplant

Jon Batiste is the Creative Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem and the music director of The Atlantic. Jon surprised everyone recently when he revealed some shocking news. The singer recently revealed that he is married to journalist and author Suleika Jaouad. 

In February, the Grammy winner married longtime partner Suleika Jaouad in secret. After she was diagnosed with leukaemia for the second time, Jaouad, the author of the bestselling cancer memoir Between Two Kingdoms, told CBS Sunday Morning that the couple wanted to get married.

“We got married the day before I was admitted to the hospital to undergo my bone marrow transplant,” she told the outlet.

“We have known that we wanted to get married, I think, from the first week that we started dating. That’s when Jon first brought up the topic of marriage to me. So, we’ve had eight years. This is not, you know, a hasty decision!”

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“He said to me, ‘I just want to be very clear, I’m not proposing to you because of this diagnosis. It’s taken me a year to design your ring. So, just know this timing has nothing to do with it. But what I do want you to know is that this diagnosis doesn’t change anything. It just makes it all the clearer to me that I want to commit to this and for us to be together.’ But once we realized we had this tiny window before the bone marrow transplant, we decided to go for it.”

Batiste and Jaouad were able to obtain their marriage licence quickly and had a “tiny” and “perfect” wedding, with the couple opting for “bread ties” instead of traditional wedding rings. “And I’ll tell you, we walked into that bone marrow transplant unit on cloud nine,” Jaouad added. “We were so happy, so brimming with love and positivity from this beautiful evening that we’d had. And I really believe that that carried us through.” 

Last year, the musician spoke with People about the making of his album, We Are, and how the song “Show Me the Way” exemplifies his relationship with Jaouad. “It speaks to a lot of me growing up and also our relationship,” Batiste said at the time. “It’s a beautiful thing to have that piece of our relationship sliced off into the album.”

Batiste won five awards at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, including best music video and album of the year, after receiving a whopping 11 nominations. Following his victories, Batiste was asked about the “duality” of the moment in light of his personal situation in the press room.

“It puts it in perspective. Life has ups and downs. And sometimes the ups and downs occur at the same time. And when you have that happening, it really lets you know by shaking your consciousness and saying, ‘Be present. Be here.’ So what’s going on back home and what’s happening today are both in their proper place for me.”

May the couple’s love for each other deepen with each passing day. To get the latest updates, keep an eye on Thirsty.

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