For four years, Joe Biden and Jill Biden weren’t just a couple — they were the couple. As expected with being a former president and first lady, their every move came with a side of scrutiny and a long list of rumors, many of them completely baseless. And, well, it’s practically a rite of passage for presidential pairs — just ask Barack Obama and Michelle Obama or even Donald Trump and Melania Trump. Being in the White House apparently means you also have permanent residency in the rumor mill.
If you ask Joe and Jill, though, their marriage is far from the drama people imagine. “Everybody says marriage is 50/50. Well, sometimes you have to be 70/30. Thank God that when I’m really down, she steps in, and when she’s really down, I’m able to step in. We’ve been really supportive of one another,” Joe told People of their dynamic and how they keep their marriage strong, to which Jill agreed. “All that we’ve been through together — the highs, the lows and certainly tragedy and loss — there’s that quote that says sometimes you become stronger in the fractured places,” she said. “That’s what we try to achieve.”
But rumors don’t care about heartfelt declarations. From claims of infidelity at the start of their relationship to insinuations that Jill pulls the strings behind the scenes, their marriage has been anything but free from tabloid fodder. Here are the most talked-about rumors surrounding the Bidens’ marriage.
Some claim that Jill was Joe’s ‘teenage babysitter’ he hired for his family
Joe Biden and Jill Biden’s love story has been the target of several wild conspiracy theories, and some of them can be traced to back to their nearly decade-wide age gap. The most ridiculous rumor? That Jill was a teenager babysitting Joe’s kids, Beau and Hunter, from his first marriage to the late Neilia Biden, when Joe allegedly swooped in to court her. “She was 15 he was in his 30’s she used to be the Biden family babysitter,” one social media claim insists.
But of course, the rumor is utter nonsense. When Joe and Jill met, she was an adult — well past babysitting gigs. Joe, a 32-year-old senator at the time, met Jill, who was about to turn 24, while she was navigating life after separating from her first husband, Bill Stevenson. And far from falling for a teenage babysitter, Joe’s charm came as a total shock to Jill “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!” she recalled in an interview with Vogue. “But we really hit it off … I went upstairs and called my mother at 1:00 a.m. and said, ‘Mom, I finally met a gentleman.'”
The two eventually married in 1977, with Jill becoming a loving stepmother to Joe’s sons. While their age difference has sparked speculation, there’s no truth to the rumor that Jill was underage when they met. Their relationship began when Jill was an independent adult — and the rest, as they say, is history.
Did Jill cheat on her first husband with Joe?
Another juicy rumor swirling around the origins of Jill Biden and Joe Biden’s relationship is the claim that Jill cheated on her first husband, Bill Stevenson, with Joe. And here’s the kicker: this rumor didn’t sprout from MAGA conspiracy circles but from Stevenson himself. In an interview with the Daily Mail, he alleged that Jill and Joe started dating while she was still married to him — and that their timeline doesn’t add up.
According to Stevenson, Jill met Joe in 1972 while working on the future senator’s first campaign. By 1974, he suspected something was going on. Stevenson even shared a vivid memory. “I know exactly when it was,” he told the outlet. “Bruce Springsteen was going to play at The Stone Balloon and I had to go to Northern New Jersey to pay him in advance. I asked Jill to go with me and she said no — she had things to do, she had to look after Joe’s kids, Beau and Hunter. … I had no idea she and Joe were that kind of friendly. Then one of her best friends told me she thought Joe and Jill were getting a little too close.”
Conveniently, Stevenson shared all of this while promoting his tell-all book. (Was it ever published? Who knows.) Jill’s camp, unsurprisingly, called the claims out as pure fiction. “These claims are fictitious, seemingly to sell and promote a book. The relationship of Joe and Jill Biden is well documented,” Jill’s spokesperson said in a statement, per Inside Edition. “Jill Biden separated from her first husband irreconcilably in the fall of 1974 and moved out of their marital home. Joe and Jill Biden had their first date in March of 1975, and they married in June of 1977.”
Joe’s presidency was rumored to have had a significant strain on their marriage
Balancing family life with running an entire country? No easy feat — and for Joe Biden and Jill Biden, it hasn’t come without its share of drama. Rumors of a rocky marriage have made the rounds, with some even pointing to Jill’s occasional frosty demeanor during public outings or Joe’s conspicuous lack of a wedding ring as “proof” that there has been trouble in paradise.
Neither of the two have addressed the speculations, although Joe was honest that both of their responsibilities as president and first lady made it more challenging to carve out quality time. “I miss her. I’m really proud of her. But it’s not like we can just go off like we used to,” he told Vogue. “When we were living in Delaware and married, once a month we’d just go up to a local bed-and-breakfast by ourselves, to make sure we had a romantic time to just get away and hang out with each other.”
The good news is despite their demanding schedules, the Bidens have found ways to stay connected. It might not be grand getaways anymore, but even small rituals, like an uninterrupted dinner, keep them grounded. “Sometimes we eat on the balcony; last night we ate in the yellow Oval, upstairs,” Jill shared. “It’s just part of the day that we set apart, and we still light the candles, still have the conversations, still put the phones away.”
There are claims that Jill acts as Joe’s puppet master
While Joe Biden has spent most of his life in the political spotlight, Jill Biden has largely forged her path in academia. But some have claimed that, despite Joe being the leader of the free world, Jill was the one calling the shots during his presidency — especially given Joe’s occasional verbal stumbles and awkward moments that fueled questions about his sharpness.
“Jill’s always been totally protective of Joe since the earliest days of his presidency helping to vet White House staffers before they’re hired and lending advice and counsel when it’s needed,” a political insider dished to Radar Online in 2022. “But lately she’s obviously been running the show with her husband’s mental state in greater and greater question. Key presidential duties are falling to Jill, and she’s been stepping up and taking more on her plate. Sometimes, she even acts in her husband’s stead when it seems he is unable to!”
Bold claims, sure — except there’s zero evidence to back this up. Jill, for her part, has been open about the challenges of being first lady, admitting it’s no 9-to-5 gig. “I think it’s a little harder than I imagined,” she shared with CBS Sunday Morning‘s Rita Braver in an interview. “It’s not like a job that you do, it’s a lifestyle that you live. It’s 24 hours a day.”
Some are convinced that Jill forced Joe to run for president again
With Joe Biden firmly in his golden years, most wouldn’t have blamed him if he decided to hang up his presidential hat after one term. But apparently, Jill Biden had other plans. Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley claimed it was Jill who nudged Joe into running again, suggesting she wasn’t quite ready to give up the spotlight. Unlike the wives of past presidents who reportedly urged their husbands to step down — like Bess Truman and Lady Bird Johnson — Brinkley argued that Jill was different. “That’s not the case with Jill Biden. She likes power. She wants to stay,” he said in a “Face the Nation” appearance. “She wants some sense of revenge.”
Adding fuel to the fire, Jill’s ex-husband Bill Stevenson chimed in with his own hot take, criticizing her unwavering support of Joe despite his shaky 2024 debate performance. “The Dr. Jill Biden who I’ve seen on TV in the last five years is not the same person I married or that I recognize in any way,” he told the New York Post. “She’s matriculated into a completely different woman.”
Jill did champion Joe’s second campaign, but she also backed him when he passed the torch to Kamala Harris. Power-hungry? Doesn’t sound like it. Reflecting on their time in the White House, Jill told “Good Morning America” that Joe stepping down was the right decision. “I’ve had such a great four years. I mean really it has been the honor of our lives. It’ll be tough to maybe step away from it, but we’re starting a new chapter of our lives. A new journey,” she said, adding, “It’s time for something new. It was the right call.”
