Joe Biden and first wife, Neilia, with sons Beau and Hunter, cut his 30th birthday cake at a party in Wilmington, Delaware on November 20, 1972 When the Election Day dust cleared, the not-yet-30-year-old challenger had become the second-youngest person ever elected to the Senate, leaving the Bidens to wonder what could possibly come next in their rapid rise in politics. Senate, serving as what her husband called the " brains" of the operation. Two years later, Neilia assumed a leading role in Joe's campaign against Republican J. Meanwhile, Joe's first attempt at politics proved successful with his election to the New Castle County Council in 1970. Neilia held down the fort as their life accelerated, giving birth to Joseph "Beau" Biden III in February 1969, Robert "Hunter" Biden in February 1970 and Naomi "Amy" Biden in November 1971. "We agreed on almost everything," he wrote, save for Neilia's hope that her husband set his sights on the U.S. Neilia served a crucial role in Joe's 1972 Senate campaignĪs their shared journey took them to Syracuse and then to Wilmington, the couple mapped out the goals that included Joe becoming a trial lawyer and then running for public office. And as their relationship progressed, her well-to-do parents overcame any misgivings about his politics (he's a Democrat, they were Republican) and religious faith (he's Catholic, they were Presbyterian).Īs such, the August 1966 wedding between Joe and Neilia appeared to be just an early milestone in their storybook romance, no one knowing their union would end in tragedy less than six-and-a-half years later. Joe found Neilia to be warm, bright and refreshingly down to earth, unbothered by his modest upbringing in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware. "She was lit by the unforgiving journey of a full afternoon sun, and I couldn't see a single flaw." "When she turned toward me, I could see she had a beautiful smile and gorgeous green eyes," he wrote in his memoir Promises to Keep. The University of Delaware junior had taken a spring break trip to the Bahamas and sneaked into an exclusive beach resort, where he came upon Syracuse University senior Neilia Hunter sunbathing by a pool. Here, a look back at Joe and Jill Biden’s love story.It was love at first sight for Joe Biden. The family of four then embarked on a honeymoon together because according to Joe and Jill, they were all marrying each other, which is pretty much the nicest thought ever. Afterward, there was a reception lunch at the Sign of the Dove. The ceremony was attended by about 40 of their family members and closest friends, and Biden’s sons, Beau and Hunter, stood by the couple’s side at the altar. The two married on June 17, 1977, in New York City at the United Nations chapel by a Catholic priest. But I want a commitment.’ And she said okay. So I had to be 100 percent sure.” Joe remembers giving Jill an ultimatum, saying, “ ‘Look, this is the last time I’m asking you. Because they had lost their mom, and I couldn’t have them lose another mother. 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. Joe Biden proposed five times before Jill finally accepted, telling Vogue: “I said, ‘Not yet. and said, ‘Mom, I finally met a gentleman.’ ” I went upstairs and called my mother at 1:00 a.m. Jill told Vogue: “I was a senior, and I had been dating guys in jeans and clogs and T-shirts, 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.’ 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. The couple went on their first date when Jill, who had also been married before, was still in college. Three years later, the vice president’s brother introduced him to Jill Jacobs-Biden has said that he thinks somehow Neilia brought them together.
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