The Biden clan: Everything you need to know about America’s new First Family

From the son beset by scandal to the granddaughter who’s best friends with Sasha Obama, Katie Strick on everything you need to know about the Biden gang 
Joe Biden, Jill Biden
AP

One of the (very few) things Joe Biden shares with his predecessor Donald Trump is a close-knit family.  

When the new President-elect formally enters the White House on Wednesday, he brings with him a tight inner circle of family members. His wife, Jill Biden, children Ashley and Hunter, and seven grandchildren will all join America’s new First Family. 

Tragically, the 78-year-old’s family history has been beset with bereavements and the family has lost several members over the decades. Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and their 13-month-old daughter Naomi were killed in a car accident in 1972, leaving him to care for their two surviving sons, Joseph “Beau” Biden and Robert “Hunter” Biden, on his own before meeting his second wife, Jill.  

Joe Biden
AP

In 2010, more than 40 years later, Beau tragically passed away at the age of 41 following a brain cancer diagnosis. His brother Hunter is said to have struggled to come to terms with the loss and has battled drug and alcohol addiction over the years.  

Joe Biden credits second wife Jill for putting the family “back together” after Neilia’s death left him suffering from a crisis of faith and considering suicide.  

But where are they all now? From Biden’s social justice advocate daughter Ashley to the granddaughter who’s best friends with Sasha Obama, meet America’s new first family.  

Jill Biden

Jill Biden
AP

Relationship: Joe Biden’s wife  

Age: 69

Career: English professor  

Background: Jill Biden was born in New Jersey as Jill Tracy Jacobs and grew up in Pennslyvania. She studied at the University of Delaware with her first husband, college football star Bill Stevenson, who she divorced before meeting her second husband, Joe Biden. She and then-senator Biden met in 1975 after being set up on a blind date by Biden’s brother and has recalled how he “shook her hand good night” at the end of the evening. “I went upstairs and called my mother at 1am and said, ‘Mom, I finally met a gentleman,” she remembers.  

Biden proposed five times before Jill agreed to marry him. She has since helped to raise his three children as well as a child of  their own, Ashley, and Biden credits Jill for restoring his zest for life. He told the Democratic National Convention this year: “She put us back together. She gave me back my life. She gave us back a family.”  

Since then, Jill has spent eight years as the Second Lady during the Obama administration and became close friends with First Lady Michelle Obama. The pair travelled together and worked on a project called Joining Forces for military families. In the run up to this year’s election, she has been a powerful asset on the campaign trail, helping with policy proposals and serving on the education taskforce. She also plans to break White House tradition and continue her own career as a professor alongside her new role as First Lady.  

Instagram following: 1.9 million (@drbiden)

Killer quote: “From an early age, I knew I wanted my own money, my own identity and my own career.”

Ashley Biden

© Official White House Photo by David Lienemann

Relationship: Joe Biden’s youngest daughter and the only child of Joe and Jill Biden  

Age: 39

Career: Social worker, activist, philanthropist, and fashion designer  

Background: Unlike former First Daughter Ivanka Trump, Ashley Biden prefers to live her life largely out of the spotlight. Her childhood passion for the environment inspired her father to work with congresswoman Barbara Boxer on the 1990 Dolphin Protection Consumer Information Act. She graduated from Tulane University in Louisiana in cultural anthropology and worked as a pizza waitress and social worker before being appointed executive director of the Delaware Center for Justice.  

She founded the fashion company Livelihood, which raises money for community programmes focused on eliminating income inequality in the US, inspired by her brother Beau. She is married to Howard Krien, a plastic surgeon 14 years her senior, who has come under scrutiny for his venture capital business and advising the Biden campaign on coronavirus policy.

Ashley prefers not to discuss her personal life, keeping the focus on her work in social justice. In 2014, she was invited to speak at Politico's Women Rule Keynote along with her father, who was the vice president at the time. "I actually feel comfortable, and, in these types of things, I normally don't,” she said in her speech .

Instagram following: Ashley’s private Instagram account @ablazer8 has 664 followers

Killer quote: "My dad always taught me that silence is complicity and that I must stand up for anyone who was being treated unfairly. That has stayed with me through adulthood, and is the guiding principle in my professional life.”

Robert “Hunter” Biden

Hunter Biden 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee
DNC

Relationship: The second son of Joe Biden and his late wife Neilia  

Age: 50

Career: Lawyer and investment advisor  

Background: Hunter, affectionately referred to as “Hunt” by his father, was born in Delaware and is the only surviving son from Joe Biden’s first marriage, after his sister Naomi died in a car crash and brother Beau died of cancer. He was just two years old when his mother and sister were killed and says his first memory is of waking up in hospital next to his brother. After graduating from Georgetown and Yale universities he worked as vice president for Delaware’s largest employer, MBNA Bank, before being appointed as director in the Department of Commerce under the Bill Clinton administration.  

In 1993, he married Kathleen Buhle, with whom he had three children: Naomi, Finnegan and Maisy. They divorced in 2017 after which he controversially began dating Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau. It has since been confirmed that he fathered a baby with another woman during the brief relationship. In 2019 he married South African filmmaker Melissa Cohen just six days after meeting, with whom he has a son.  

Hunter has attracted his fair share of scandal over the years, being discharged from the Navy Reserves for testing positive for cocaine and struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. He has spoken about this openly over the years but various scandals have plagued his father’s political life. Trump called him a “criminal” and mocked his drug battles during the first presidential debate in September and has also repeatedly argued – without evidence – that Hunter leveraged his father’s position as vice-president for monetary gain. News outlet investigations have dismissed these claims.  

Killer quote: "There's addiction in every family. I was in that darkness. I was in that tunnel - it's a never-ending tunnel. You don’t get rid of it. You figure out how to deal with it."

Naomi Biden

Relationship: Biden’s oldest grandchild and the eldest child of Hunter Biden and his first wife Kathleen

Age: 26

Career: Law graduate  

Background: The eldest child of Hunter Biden and his former wife Kathleen, Naomi Biden was named after her grandfather’s daughter who was tragically killed in a car accident when she was one. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania alongside Tiffany Trump in 2016 and recently graduated from Colombia Law School. She and her law student boyfriend Pete Neal recently created a website that helps Americans learn how to gain access to their stimulus money during the pandemic.

Naomi’s Instagram grid features regular life updates from cute snaps with Neal and new puppy Charlie to supportive posts for her grandfather. “I am proud to be your granddaughter every single day @JoeBiden. But tonight, I am just as proud to be an American,” she tweeted ahead of the Democratic National Convention. She has travelled with him to China, Turkey and New Zealand and at the weekend she tweeted a polaroid photo of her and her cousins hugging their grandfather (“Pop”) after his win.  

Instagram following: 101,000 (@naomibiden)

Killer quote: “Anyone who wants to get to Joe Biden, will have to get past us first."

Maisy Biden

Barack Obama Campaigns With Joe Biden In Michigan 3 Days Ahead Of Election
Getty Images

Relationship: Biden’s granddaughter and the third child of Hunter Biden and his first wife Kathleen

Age: 18

Background: Naomi’s younger sister Maisy was born in 2001. She is a talented basketball player and reportedly “best friends” with the Obama’s daughter, Sasha – the two families held a joint celebration for their high school graduations last year (her grandfather Joe skipped the June 2019 Iowa Democrats Hall of Fame Dinner to attend) and play on the same basketball team, once coached by Barack Obama.  

Maisy is a passionate supporter of her grandfather’s campaign, attending a number of official trips during his VP tenure and sharing supportive posts on Instagram. She says her grandfather speaks to her and her cousins every day and if he doesn't hear from them, he'll call them to ask what's wrong.

Killer quote: On her grandfather calling her and her cousins every day: "He always calls with the same energy even after he's just done 15 interviews in a row,"

Natalie Biden

Beau Biden, Joe Biden, Hallie Biden, Natalie Biden
AP

Relationship: Biden’s granddaughter and the oldest child of the late Beau Biden and his wife Hallie 

Age: 16

Background: Teenager Natalie is the oldest child of Biden’s late son Beau. On the second night of the convention, she spoke on behalf of the Biden grandchildren to introduce her grandmother Jill Biden.  

Killer quote: On her grandmother Jill Biden: “I would say she’s not your average grandmother. She's a prankster, she's very mischievous. When she goes on a run, sometimes she'll find, like, a dead snake and she'll pick it up and put it in a bag and she'll use it to scare someone.”

@katie_strick

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