As the 47th President of the United States, a lot of Joe Biden’s life is coming into the public eye. From his finances to his personal history, everybody is trying to figure out whether he’s the right guy for the job. However, we want to look at one of the more light-hearted aspects of his life today, like where did he meet his wife, Jill?
Reportedly, Joe first laid eyes on Jill after seeing a photograph of her modeling in an airport ad for Willmington-area parks. He was ‘totally smitten by her’ and, luckily for Joe, his brother Frank actually knew her. Frank passed on Jill’s phone number, and the two have been together ever since.
Joe and Jill’s romantic history has been one of ups and downs, and neither of their love lives has been smooth sailing. Today, we’re going to look into the nitty-gritty of these stories to see how one of the most important men in the world met the woman of his dreams.
Before It Began
It surprises many that both Joe and Jill were married before they met.
Tragically, Joe was married to a lady called Neilia, and they even had three children together. However, his youngest daughter Naomi and his wife were sadly killed in an unfortunate car accident. Joe had two other sons, Hunter and Beau, whom he had to raise alone. They were also in the car during the accident.
It’s crazy to think that his entire immediate family ended up in hospital that day, an event that happened completely out of nowhere, and only his two older children survived, making him a single father unexpectedly. He was even sworn into political office as his sons were recovering in their ward.
Back in 2015, Hunter even gave Beau’s eulogy to Beau, in which he quoted that one of his first memories was being in that hospital. As reported by The List, he said;
“I was almost three years old. I remember my brother, who was one year and one day older than me, holding my hand, staring into my eyes, saying, ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’ over and over and over again.”
Around the same time as the accident, Jill was married to her husband, Bill Stevenson. They married back in 1970 and even attended the University of Delaware together. However, just four years later, in 1974, the couple separated and ended up getting a divorce the same year.
Of course, Joe having his child and his wife passed away in a car accident is enough to stop anyone wanting to even think about going onto the dating scene, and he didn’t. He focused on his family and working hard in his career and kept things pretty low key in the love department for several years.
Love for the Second Time
After working hard for a few years and focusing on his career, it wasn’t until a few years later when Joe met Jill. Now, this is where things get a little complicated, so we’ll take it one step at a time.
The originally reported story was that Joe met Jill after seeing her posing in a Wilmington Parks advertisement he saw while passing through the local airport, and said that she was ‘just his type.’ Joe’s brother knew who Jill was and passed on her number to set them up. The story for a long time was that the rest was happily ever after.
However, that might not be entirely true, and there is more than meets the eye according to Jill’s ex-husband, Bill Stevenson, who has written about the pair in his new autobiographical book. The book, however, was supposed to be released before Joe’s 2020 presidential campaign, but as of February 2021, there are no signs of it yet.
Nevertheless, Bill has spoken publicly about the book and what it contains, the biggest interview of which was with the National File publication. While he states he isn’t bitter about what happened or holds anything against Jill and Joe, the 80 out of 300 pages that do talk about the pair may not put them across in the best light.
So, what happened?
According to Bill, apparently, Joe and Jill saw each other in Delaware, even before Jill and Bill had their divorce, meaning that Jill was cheating on her husband with Joe Biden! Who would have thought it?
Throughout his supposed book, Bill talks about how Joe and Jill knew each other way before they said they had been on their date after seeing a photo in the airport. Bill and Jill had even been involved in Joe’s 1972 Senate campaign. Bill even donated over $10,000 cash to help fund the campaign!
Bill has even gone as far as to say that the official story they gave, about Joe only being in town one night, so they dated and so on, was fabricated to make Joe look good!
There are even reports from Delaware political sources (although these have been made anonymously) that have confirmed that Jill and Joe were seeing each other in 1974, which means they were still married.
While the truth of which story is true may never be truly confirmed, it’s still inspiring that Joe was able to find love again, despite his heavy and traumatic loss. It’s a clear reminder there is hope for us all!