Jared Kushner Quietly Battled Thyroid Cancer While in the White House: 'In the Hands of God'
Jared Kushner is opening up about his past health struggles.
The former White House senior advisor, 41, reveals he was diagnosed with and treated for thyroid cancer during his time working for his father-in-law, former President Donald Trump, in his new book Breaking History: A White House Memoir, according to The New York Times.
"On the morning that I traveled to Texas to attend the opening of a Louis Vuitton factory, White House physician Sean Conley pulled me into the medical cabin on Air Force One," Kushner writes. "'Your test results came back from Walter Reed,' he said. 'It looks like you have cancer. We need to schedule a surgery right away.'"
He recalls telling Dr. Conley: "Please don't tell anyone — especially my wife or my father-in-law."
Kushner notes, according to the Times, that the cancer was caught early, but required removing a "substantial part of my thyroid," which he was warned could cause long-term damage to his voice.
Alex Brandon/AP/Shutterstock Jared Kushner
The Harvard alum kept his diagnosis a secret from everyone but his wife Ivanka Trump, White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and two of Kushner's aides, scheduling the procedure for a week before Thanksgiving.
"That way, I would miss the least amount of time in the office. My absence might even go unnoticed. That's how I wanted it," he explains.
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He writes that he kept himself distracted with work so "not to think about the upcoming surgery or the unwanted growth in my body."
"When I did think about it, I reminded myself that it was in the hands of God and the doctors, and that whatever happened was out of my control," Kushner adds. "At moments, I caught myself wondering whether I would need extensive treatment."
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Kushner recalls his father-in-law, 76, calling him into the Oval Office the day before his surgery and asking if he was nervous about the procedure, even though Kushner never told the former president about his diagnosis.
"I'm the President," Kushner recalls Donald telling him. "I know everything. I understand that you want to keep these things quiet. I like to keep things like this to myself as well. You'll be just fine. Don't worry about anything with work. We have everything covered here."
Kushner inked a book deal last June with Broadside Books, a conservative imprint of HarperCollins, to write about his father-in-law's presidency.
Since leaving the West Wing, Kushner and Ivanka, 40, have relocated to Miami, where Kushner launched his investment firm Affinity Partners last year.
Breaking History: A White House Memoir is available Aug. 9.
