How President Joe Biden Fell in Love With First Lady Jill Biden

Joe Biden's wife of 42 years, Dr. Jill Biden, has been his rock throughout his political career. On January 20, 2021, the newest first lady resolutely stood by her husband's side as Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States of America.

Throughout 2020, Dr. Jill Biden campaigned tirelessly for the former Vice President of the United States. She is far from simply being Joe Biden's wife, however. Known for her loyalty and commitment to her career, the Hammonton, New Jersey, native and future first lady even fought off anti-dairy protesters who stormed the stage at one of the president's Super Tuesday rallies in March 2020, making headlines and causing the American public to applaud her ferocity. Even when their love isn't taking center stage, both Jill and Joe have demonstrated the sort of teamwork and mutual support that aspirational marriages are made of, serving the public both together and apart.

In November 2020, the then-president-elect praised his wife for her tireless support throughout his campaign and through life's ups and downs in general. "Folks, as I said many times before, I'm Jill's husband," Biden noted. "And I would not be here without the love and tireless support of Jill and my son Hunter and Ashley, my daughter, and all our grandchildren and their spouses and all our family. They're my heart. Jill's a mom, a military mom, an educator."

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A lifelong educator, Dr. Jill Biden worked as an instructor teaching English at Northern Virginia Community College while she was serving as second lady, a decision that Joe Biden supported and spoke of admiringly while he was acting as former President Barack Obama's second-in-command. Jill is also the co-founder of Joining Forces, along with former First Lady Michelle Obama, to support service members returning from active duty. Later on, after they had all left the White House in 2017, she and the democratic presidential candidate started the Biden Foundation, which had initiatives championing everything from LGBTQ+ rights to supporting military families. Suffice it to say, the Bidens make quite the dream team. But how did the dynamic duo come to be?

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How President Joe Biden Met Jill

When Joe and Jill first met in 1975, they were at very different points in their lives. Joe had, three years earlier, lost both his wife, college sweetheart Neilia Biden, and his 1-year-old daughter, Naomi, in a tragic car accident in which a tractor-trailer slammed into their station wagon. Their two young sons, Hunter and Beau, survived. Jill, meanwhile, was a senior at the University of Delaware, just about to graduate and pondering the future. It was Joe's brother Frank who introduced the pair.

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"I was a senior, and I had been dating guys in jeans and clogs and T-shirts, [and] he came to the door and he had a sport coat and loafers, and I thought, 'God, this is never going to work, not in a million years,'" Jill told Vogue in 2016 of the first time Joe came to pick her up for their date. "He was nine years older than I am! But we went out to see A Man and a Woman at the movie theater in Philadelphia, and we really hit it off."

"When we came home … he shook my hand good night," she recalled. "I went upstairs and called my mother at 1:00 a.m. and said, 'Mom, I finally met a gentleman.'"

How They Fell in Love

The pair dated, and Joe has said before in interviews that he sometimes felt as though his late wife, Neilia, had a hand in bringing the two together. "She gave me back my life," Joe said of Jill in his 2007 memoir Promises to Keep. "She made me start to think my family might be whole again." At the time, Joe was still raising Hunter and Beau by himself, but Jill was quickly integrated into the family, joining them for the holidays.

Both boys grew attached to Jill, and vice versa, and Joe recalled in his memoir the moment he knew it was time to propose. According to the former vice president, his boys, then aged 6 and 7, broached the subject of marriage one morning while he was shaving. Hunter, according to Joe, told him, "Beau thinks we should get married." Beau clarified, "We think we should marry Jill. What do you think, Dad?"

Biden wrote that he told his sons, "I think that's a pretty good idea."

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Happy anniversary to the love of my life and the life of my love, @DrBiden. I'm forever grateful you agreed to spend the rest of your life with me. I love you, Jilly!
A post shared by Joe Biden (@joebiden) on Jun 17, 2019 at 4:02pm PDT

How Joe Biden Proposed to Jill Biden

The only problem was that Jill wasn't quite ready for marriage just yet. According to Jill, Joe had to propose five times before she finally said yes. Her concern, she told the publication, wasn't about whether or not she loved Joe, but that she loved the boys too much for the marriage to not work out. "I said, 'Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.' Because by that time, of course, I had fallen in love with the boys, and I really felt that this marriage had to work," she said. "Because they had lost their mom, and I couldn't have them lose another mother. So I had to be 100 percent sure."

Finally, after four failed proposals, Joe gave Jill and ultimatum, telling her, "Look, this is the last time I'm asking you. I don't care when we get married. But I want a commitment." That was enough for Jill to make the decision, and she finally said yes.

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Joe Biden and Jill Biden's Wedding

The couple kept their wedding relatively low key, exchanging vows in New York City at the United Nations chapel on June 17, 1977. About 40 of their closest family and friends served as witnesses, as did Beau and Hunter, who were important parts of the ceremony: they stood right up at the altar by Joe and Jill's side. "The way they thought of it, the four of us were getting married," Joe wrote in his 2007 memoir.

The foursome even went on a honeymoon together to further cement their family bond. Years later, in 1981, when Joe and Jill welcomed a baby girl together, Hunter and Beau were tasked with choosing the perfect name for her; they named their little sister Ashley.

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Looking Ahead

Public interest in the duo's combined efforts in the White House continues to rise given Dr. Jill Biden's lifelong commitment to education. She has proudly helped champion his causes in events and at rallies throughout 2020, and will continue to do so as future First Lady of the United States of America.

The Biden Foundation officially suspended operations in April 2019 as the president began to contemplate a run for office, in order to remain as financially transparent as possible throughout his presidential campaign. She instead stumped for Joe in virtual town halls, speaking with local residents and leaders about their concerns from a safe social distance. She's also shared tiny glimpses into the couple's home life via her Instagram account, and will continue to be invested as first lady. "He will be a President for all of our families," she wrote following her husband's victory on November 7.

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