White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre replaced her predecessor Jen Psaki in May 2022 and held her final official press briefing on Wednesday.

Karine Jean-Pierre shared in a heartbreaking essay this week that she had a “second full-time job” while serving as White House press secretary: caring for her mother, who has cancer. She wrote in Vanity Fair that she visited her mom in New York every weekend for 18 months while maintaining a secret she kept from even her workmates.

Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre revealed Tuesday that she kept her mother’s cancer battle a secret to almost everyone – except former President Joe Biden — because as a black woman,