Jon Batiste is a 35-year-old singer, songwriter and television star. He has been the bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert since 2015.
Batiste also works as Music Director for The Atlantic, a company that publishes on many different platforms. He is also the creative director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
As of August 2022, he had also won five out of a possible eleven Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year honors for his album We Are.
Why is Jon Batiste leaving The Late Show with Stephen Colbert?
Jon Batiste is best known for being the nightly musical director and bandleader of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
People used to think he was skipping the summer season of his nightly show to spend more time with his wife, Suleika Jaouad.
When his partner was told earlier this year that she had been diagnosed with leukemia for the second time, he did not hide the fact that she was still being treated.
According to Pitchfork, Grammy Award-winning singer Batiste has officially departed The Late Show With Stephen Colbert on CBS after seven seasons.
Colbert said Thursday that Jon has decided to leave the show. He does it for the best of reasons, like continuing to share his work with people around the world.
Stephen Colbert and Jon Batiste are friends and work together
Jon Batiste and Stephen Colbert spoke about their friendship and work habits during the 2019 New York Comedy Festival at Carnegie Hall.
Batiste first met Colbert while he was a guest on The Colbert Report. Now they are close and respect each other.
Before Colbert joined The Late Show, Batiste took him to Louisiana to see his parents. There, his mother taught him how to cook red beans and rice, but she wouldn’t tell him her secret recipe.
Suleika Jaouad, wife of Jon Batiste, is battling cancer
In April 2022, Jon Batiste, a singer, said that he and Suleika Jaouad secretly married in February.
Suleika is a well-known American author and motivational speaker. Her book Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted is one of her best-known works.
Jaouad was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia when he was 22 years old. She underwent more than one round of chemotherapy and participated in a clinical trial.
Before she finally got the all-clear in 2014, she also had a bone marrow transplant.
In November 2021, when Jaouad was 33, her illness worsened. That was just days before the Grammy nominations were announced.
Batiste was finding it hard to stay happy while his longtime partner was hospitalized with COVID-19.
Batiste could not stay with Jaouad after her bone marrow transplant because omicron was still rising in February.
Jon Batiste going where?
Jon Batiste has quit his job as bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. This is the end of his off-screen time.
Stephen Colbert recently said that Batiste is now working on his new record and is out of town.
He also said: “We have been extremely fortunate to have seen Jon’s amazing talent up close over the past seven years.”
So far, it hasn’t been said exactly why she left the show. Jon hasn’t said anything about his new projects, and neither has he.
What is Jon Batiste doing right now?
People are saying that Jon Batiste is now turning his attention to his brave wife Suleika, who is battling cancer.
There are also rumors that he has stopped his long-running show because he is too busy making his next album.
Stephen wrote: “We will miss Jon but we are happy for him and can’t wait to have him guest again with his next hit.”