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Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad Privately Wed After Her Leukemia Diagnosis

Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad Privately Wed After Her Leukemia Diagnosis
Suleika Jaouad on Instagram

Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad revealed on "CBS Sunday Morning" that they secretly wed in February.


"We got married the day before I was admitted to the hospital to undergo my bone marrow transplant," Jaouad shared.

In November, Jaouad, 33, was diagnosed with leukemia for a second time, having gone into remission in her twenties.

She told correspondent Jim Axelrod,

"It was far more aggressive than it had been a decade ago."

The night before Jaouad's bone marrow transplant, they said "I do," an event that would have happened for the pair regardless of health.

"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,'" she recalled. "But once we realized we had this tiny window before the bone marrow transplant, we decided to go for it."

Jaouad said that the suddenness of the "tiny, beautiful, little ceremony" meant they made do without formal rings.

"We used bread ties," she said."And I'll tell you. We walked into that bone marrow transplant unit on cloud nine. 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," she said.

On Sunday, Batiste took home five Grammy Awards, including best music video and album of the year.

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