Jimmy Carter’s grandson provides brief update on former president’s health

Jimmy Carter‘s grandson provided an update on the former president’s health more than a year after he entered hospice care.

Jason Carter delivered the update while speaking at the 28th Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum on Tuesday.

“(My grandfather) is doing OK,” Jason said. “He has been in hospice, as you know, for almost a year and a half now, and he really is, I think, coming to the end that, that — as I’ve said before, there’s a part of this faith journey that is so important to him. And there’s a part of that faith journey that you only can live at the very end, and I think he has been there in that space.”

LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 06: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter (L) and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter attend the 25th anniversary MusiCares 2015 Person Of The Year Gala honoring Bob Dylan at the Los Angeles Convention Center on February 6, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. The annual benefit raises critical funds for MusiCares’ Emergency Financial Assistance and Addiction Recovery programs. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

The former president became the oldest living president in 2018 when George H.W. Bush died at the age of 94.

He has survived metastatic brain cancer, liver cancer, and a number of health scares, including brain surgery following a fall in 2019.

Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Jimmy Carter, now 99, made the decision to enter hospice care at his longtime home in Plains, Georgia in February 2023 after a series of hospital stays. He made a rare public appearance in November 2023 after his wife of 77 years, Rosalynn Carter died.

“My grandmother’s passing was a difficult moment for all of us, including my grandfather,” Jason told the audience at the forum.

“The outpouring of love and support that we as a family received from the people in this room and from the rest of the world was so remarkable and meaningful for us and really turned this process into a celebration.”

WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 04: Former US President Jimmy Carter listens during the kick-off of an all-week construction project to mark the World Habitat Day and the annual Habitat for Humanity Carter Work Project October 4, 2010 in the Ivy City neighborhood of Washington, DC. Carter was recently released from an Ohio hospital after being treated for a viral infection. Under the project a total of 86 homes will be built, rehabilitated or repaired in Washington, DC; Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland; Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota; and Birmingham, Alabama. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

During the mental health forum, Jason recalled an exchange he had with his grandfather several weeks earlier while the two watched an Atlanta Braves game together.

“‘People ask me how you’re doing and I say, I don’t know’ and he said, ‘Well, I don’t know myself,’” Jason remembered.

Although he’s lived a long life, it still breaks my heart to hear this news about Jimmy Carter.