Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions
Bruce Springsteen is giving fans an update on his wife Patti Scialfa’s cancer diagnosis.
“She’s doing good, we caught it early, which was important,” Springsteen, 75, shared in a preview of a new ABC special, “Bruce Springsteen: Backstage and Backstreets” about Springsteen’s upcoming documentary released on Tuesday, October 15. “It’s a tough disease, it’s very fatiguing.”
Last month, Scialfa, 71, opened up about being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, in Springsteen’s new documentary, Rock Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Scialfa, who has been married to Springsteen since 1991, noted that her condition had been why she had largely stepped back from Springsteen and the E Street Band’s most recent world tour, which kicked off in February 2023 and continues into July 2025.
“This affects my immune system, so I have to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go,” Scialfa shared in the documentary, per Variety. “Every once in a while, I come to a show or two and I can sing a few songs on stage, and that’s a treat. That’s the new normal for me right now, and I’m OK with that.”
Springsteen dealt with some major health issues himself last year and had to postpone several tour dates due to peptic ulcer disease.
“Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have postponed all performances currently scheduled for September 2023, beginning with tomorrow’s show scheduled for the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, NY,” the band said in a statement released in September 2023. “Mr. Springsteen is being treated for symptoms of peptic ulcer disease and the decision of his medical advisors is that he should postpone the remainder of his September shows.”
Later in the same statement, Springsteen apologized to his fans and thanked them for their “understanding and support.”
“We’ve been having a blast at our US shows and we’re looking forward to more great times. We’ll be back soon. Love and God bless all, Bruce,” the message concluded.
Bruce Springsteen found his “Jersey Girl” in wife Patti Scialfa. “We’ve been together for 30 years. That’s a long [time] – you’ve shared a lot,” Springsteen gushed during an October 2019 appearance on CBS Mornings. “You know, Patti’s been at the center of my life for the entire second half of my life … and […]
In March, Springsteen returned to the stage to perform at Phoenix, AZ’s Footprint Center after taking six months off to deal with his condition. The singer shared that his comeback almost didn’t happen because the disease robbed him of his voice — at one point he thought he would never sing again.
“You sing with your diaphragm,” Springsteen explained to SiriusXM’s E Street Radio host Jim Rotolo in March. “My diaphragm was hurting so badly that when I went to make the effort to sing, it was killing me, you know? So, I literally couldn’t sing at all, you know, and that lasted for two or three months, along with just a myriad of other painful problems.”
Springsteen noted that his medical team assured him he would be OK eventually, even if he thought the pain was going to last forever.
“At first, nobody was quite saying that, which made me nervous,” he added. “At the end of the day, I found some great doctors, and they straightened me out, and I can’t do anything but thank them all.”
