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Joe Amabile reveals his brain tumor is malignant, will require treatment for rest of life

By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 08/14/2026

Bachelor in Paradise and Dancing with the Stars alum Joe Amabile has shared an update on his brain tumor and prognosis one week after undergoing surgery.

Joe took to Instagram on Thursday, August 12 and posted a video, which he captioned, in part, "Today is a full week since my surgery, sharing an update and my diagnosis."

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In the video, Joe was wearing a baseball cap, a hoodie and sunglasses.

"I'm back. It's been a full week since my surgery. Recovery has been really great for the most part," he shared.

"I think I struggled at the beginning with speaking, just, like, knowing what to say but not being able to say it. And then you know, just pain obviously."

But Joe said he's off heavy painkillers now, except for a "few Tylenol here and there."

"And then I got my prognosis, which was fairly good," The Bachelorette alum continued.

"I do have an astrocytoma, but it's very low-grade. They did get the whole thing. When it comes to malignant brain tumors, they don't know what's left over, so I will be going on treatment."

Joe explained that his treatment for this malignant tumor will be a pill "every day for the rest of my life to put the bad cells to sleep."

"And hopefully they stay asleep. And that's it, that's all I can do," he concluded.

Joe insisted, however, that his recovery is "going well" in the caption of his post.

"Recovery has been better than even I expected and I'm a pretty positive person," he wrote.

Joe told his fans that all of their "love and support" has "means a lot" to him.

"If I haven't got back to you it's not because I didn't see it, it's because I don't like you. Lol jk," Joe quipped.

"I love you guys, I've just been very overwhelmed and focused on rest/recovery but the support means so much."

Joe went on to explain how he was diagnosed with a very low-grade astrosytoma and so he will continue to have regular MRIs.

"Staying positive baby," he concluded.

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On August 6, Joe revealed that his surgeon removed "all" of his brain lesion and that he'd been discharged from the hospital.

Endearingly known as "Grocery store Joe" in Bachelor Nation, Joe called his wife, Serena Pitt, his "rock" during these challenging times.

One week prior to undergoing the knife, Joe admitted on Instagram that it had been a "tough" and "tricky" waiting game to have the tumor removed from his brain.

He said at the time that he was going through "a lot of ups and downs."

Joe also revealed via Instagram that he hopes to run in the 2026 New York City marathon after fully recovering from his surgery.

Joe recently uploaded a screenshot of his acceptance into the marathon and wrote, "We'll see," along with a crossed-fingers emoji.

Joe first revealed his brain tumor diagnosis to the world on July 13.

"I had to go get a brain MRI, and there was a blueberry-sized lesion in my brain that looks to be a glioma, which is a tumor," he told his fans via Instagram at the time.

Joe said he "definitely wasn't expecting" to need brain surgery.

"I think it's one of those things where you're like, 'Oh, something like this would never happen to me,' and here I am. They say it's really early stages. I hope they are able to get it all, and I'm fine," he shared.

Joe and Serena subsequently discussed Joe's health crisis during the July 16 episode of their "Not Married to This" podcast.

The Bachelor in Paradise couple shared how they both had full-body MRI scans with Prenuvo -- with whom they were doing a professional partnership -- just to be proactive about their health.

About two days later, Joe said he received a phone call and thought he was going to be told he had an enlarged prostate because he tends to pee a lot during the night.

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But when Joe spoke to his doctor on the phone, the Bachelor in Paradise alum was informed he had "a lesion" in his brain about the size of a marble or small grape.

"It's in the frontal lobe of my brain. The doctor was pretty alarming where he was like, 'You've got to go get this checked within the next week or two. It's urgent,'" Joe recalled.

Joe therefore scheduled another MRI, after which the radiologist characterized his lesion as an "early-stage glioma, which is a tumor." Joe said they believed it was Grade 1 or 2 at the time.

Joe said the news was pretty shocking because, "for the most part," he wasn't experiencing any symptoms.

"Now I kind of feel like I might have symptoms, but some of them are self-induced. So that's a difficult territory," Joe admitted.

He went on to elaborate, "The symptoms I'm having now are more like lightheadedness, and I think a lot of it now is more anxiety, I believe. But who knows? What I would be experiencing more of [based on] where it is in my brain would be lack of motor skills, personality changes, and memory loss."

Joe said surgery felt like the only option at that point because he didn't want the tumor to grow.

Joe acknowledged, "The surgery is very dangerous. It's a craniotomy, which is scary. It's a serious surgery."

Serena clarified how a surgeon planned to cut out a piece of Joe's skull and take out as much of the tumor as they could. She said titanium screws would then be used to close up Joe's skull.

"Even though it's slow-growing, the likelihood of it growing into something aggressive or problematic is very high," Serena noted. "They are amazed we caught it so early... so that's good news."

Joe said his plan was to keep his "stress levels low" leading up to the surgery.

Serena concluded at the time, "They said a few days in the hospital, a few weeks out, and then you'll be back and better than ever, baby!"

Joe found fame when he competed on Season 14 of The Bachelorette starring Becca Kufrin in 2018.

After being a Night 1 boot, Joe returned for Season 5 of Bachelor in Paradise, where he fell in love with Kendall Long.

After Joe and Kendall split, Joe looked for love on Season 7 of Bachelor in Paradise in 2021 and found it with Serena.

Joe and Serena quietly tied the knot in a New York City courthouse in 2022 before having a bigger "magical" wedding for family and friends in South Carolina in September 2023.