These Presidents And World Leaders Hid Their Health Problems

For as long as people have been electing politicians into office, the health of electee’s has been shrouded in secrecy. This isn’t a surprise. After all, if you were leading an entire country, you would want everyone to think you were the picture of perfect health, right? But that’s not always the case.

Take for example Woodrow Wilson, who was incapacitated following a stroke while in office, but the public had no idea until months later. Meanwhile, John F. Kennedy suffered a series of medical problems which were kept private with the help of his aides. Politicians suffer from health problems just like us…but some were worse off than others. You won’t believe some of the ailments these presidents and other world leaders suffered from while they were in office.

Grover Cleveland Had A Secret Surgery To Remove A Tumor

Photo Credit: Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

In the summer of 1983, no one knew where President Grover Cleveland was for four days. Due to laissez-faire economics, the country had already been in a state of panic, so his disappearance didn’t help. It turned out that Cleveland was on a friend’s yacht off Cape Cod — but it was anything but relaxing. Cleveland was having a malignant tumor removed from part of his jaw.

Cleveland suffered from different maladies throughout the majority of his life, including his two nonconsecutive terms. He was obese and had both gout and nephritis, which caused his kidneys to become inflamed. He died of a heart attack in 1908.