Howie Mandel has shared an important update about his nine-year-old grandson Axel’s remission journey. The America’s Got Talent judge attended the FNAA Achievement Awards in New York City on December 3 and spoke exclusively to HELLO! about Axel’s health. Watch it below.
He said: “He’s in remission. He’s doing really good. It’s a long, hard fought journey, and it’s heartbreaking to deal with a family member, and a baby who goes through such a battle, but I feel like we’re on the other side of it. I hope so too.” The TV star plans to spend his holidays enjoying his downtime with his closest relatives. Howie expressed: “Well, that’s the thing, I’m going to go on a trip with my family. I’m going to go away with my family because I find [that] personally, if I go away with somebody else’s family, it’s just awkward and uncomfortable because I don’t know them, and they don’t know me, and we have different likes and dislikes, so I’m going to spend it with my family.”
Howie revealed that Axel was previously diagnosed with leukemia and was in remission, for the first time in September 2025, alongside his daughter Jackelyn Shultz on In Depth with Graham Bensinger. Jackelyn made the saddening health discovery when she took Axel to the hospital during the family’s trip to Hawaii, because she assumed he caught the flu.
© InstagramThe TV judge explained that Axel’s case was different because he had an autoimmune issue. Axel then received a bone marrow transplant from his sister Abbey, 11, as Howie stressed the important work that the Children’s Hospital has done to help the family. Because the family kept Axel’s leukemia battle private, viewers who would tune into the Howie Mandel Does Stuff podcast were unaware of why the father-daughter always wore masks when guests would have a cold, until they shared the personal and devastating news.
© WireImageJackelyn revealed how he felt from all the negative commentary online and expressed on the In Depth with Graham Bensinger podcast: “I got such hate in vitriol they thought it was because I didn’t agree with their politics or whatever. And I was just, in my mind, I’m like, ‘They have no idea what I’m going through right now. They have no idea that I’m just trying to be able to go visit my son in the hospital.'” Howie is also the grandfather to his daughter Riley Mandel’s daughter Noa, who is one year old.
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