Jon Batiste And Suleika Jaouad Got Wed In Secret After Her Second Leukemia Diagnosis

Jon Batiste was certainly a celebrated talent during the last Oscar award show. After being given an astonishing 11 nominations for his “We Are” album, the artist went home with five wins. Besides the awards, Batiste apparently still has much to celebrate.

Batiste recently wed his partner, Suleika Jaouad, in a secret ceremony. The two met at a band camp and then proceeded to date each other for eight years before getting married, with around four people in attendance.

The proposal came after Jaouad was diagnosed with leukemia a second time; however, this wasn’t the main reason behind the seemingly rushed ceremony. The lovebirds had to change the normal wedding setting, using bread ties instead of wedding rings and exchanging their vows amid medical personnel.

In a secret wedding, Grammy winner Batiste tied the knot with his long-time partner Jaouad. The wedding took place in February after the “Between Two Kingdoms” author was diagnosed with leukemia for the second time.

In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, the cancer memoir author revealed that the decision was well thought out and not rushed in any way. “We got married the day before I was admitted to the hospital to undergo my bone marrow transplant,” she said.

“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,” Jaouad continued. “So, we’ve had eight years. This is not, you know, a hasty decision!”

While talking about the wedding, Jaouad clarified that her recent diagnosis didn’t factor in the musician’s decision to propose to her. According to the Grammy winner, the diagnosis was not going to “interrupt the plan we have. This is just a bump in the road.”

Batiste added that the marriage was “an act of defiance” by both of them. According to Jaouad, it took him an entire year to design her engagement ring, much earlier than when they got the diagnosis.

She revealed, “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.” The couple exchanged vows during the “tiny window before the bone marrow transplant.”

Due to the hasty nature of their wedding, the couple had to make some rather unusual adjustments to the ceremony. They got their marriage license quickly while the author was still in the operating room with a catheter on her chest.

“It was absurd!” Jaouad said. “There were nurses around, there were surgeons around. We had this computer. I was in a hospital gown. But we made it happen.” She added that they walked into the transplant unit “on cloud nine” because they were so happy.

Their wedding outfit was purchased the night before, “very last-minute.” They also made use of bread ties instead of the traditional wedding rings. “But it was, you know, not anything like what we’d imagined. There were maybe four people present. It was private. It was tiny. And it was perfect,” she said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp9nWTfStYg

During an interview with People last year, the Grammy winner talked about his album “We Are” and the creation process. According to Batiste, the track “Show Me the Way” illustrated his relationship with his wife, Jaouad.

At that time, the musician said, “It speaks to a lot of me growing up and also our relationship. It’s a beautiful thing to have that piece of our relationship sliced off into the album.”

The recent Grammy award show saw Batiste bag five awards for his “We Are” album after his initial 11 nominations. The awards included Best Music Video and Album of the Year. He beat out major artists like Taylor Swift, Lil Nas X, Justin Bieber, Doja Cat, and Olivia Rodrigo.