Tragic Details About Jill Biden

The following article includes mentions of addiction.

For four years, Jill Biden held one of the most important titles in the country — the first lady of the United States. Before that, she served eight years as second lady of the United States during her husband’s vice presidency in the Obama administration. While her husband’s political career has been remarkable, Jill’s achievements in academia, politics, and philanthropy are equally as impressive. Yet, not even her many successes over the years, nor her status as America’s first lady, could shield her from controversial moments and the many hardships of life.

After meeting Joe Biden in 1975 and getting married in 1977, Jill was ushered into a world ridden with lingering grief, the aftermath of a devastating tragedy. Three years prior, Joe Biden had lost his first wife, Neilia, and the couple’s youngest child, Naomi, in a car crash. In a 2020 speech, Jill reflected on that time of her life and how she stepped up to help the then-senator and his two young sons with their grief. “I fell in love with a man and two little boys standing in the wreckage of unthinkable loss, mourning a wife and a mother, a daughter and a sister. I never imagined at the age of 26, I would be asking myself, ‘How do you make a broken family whole?'” she shared in the speech.

But while they were able to find the will to go on after the horrific tragedy, life did not get easier for the Bidens, specifically Jill. Between testing positive for COVID-19 to her husband’s near-death experience, here are tragic details about Jill Biden.

Jill Biden’s first husband was Bill Stevenson, whom she married in 1970 when she was 18. The marriage was, however, short lived, with the pair divorcing only five years later. “I believed so much in the institution of marriage. When the marriage fell apart, I fell hard because of that,” she recounted in an interview with Harper’s Bazaar.

With little to no income or savings to her name, Jill’s divorce from Stevenson left her stranded. Their divorce would eventually turn contentious after Jill asked to be awarded a half-share of Stone Balloon, the student bar Stevenson had opened in Delaware during their marriage. Within a few years of its opening, Stone Balloon was a success. It was therefore unsurprising that Stevenson was protective of sharing its ownership with Jill. In the end, the judge ruled in his favor, leaving Biden with nothing.

But while her marriage to Stevenson might not have gone as planned, Jill’s divorce taught her the importance of being financially independent as a woman. “I knew I would never, ever put myself in that position again — where I didn’t feel like I had the finances to be on my own, that I had to get the money through a divorce settlement,” she shared with Bazaar. “I drummed that into [my daughter] Ashley: Be independent, be independent.”

In the 1980s, Joe Biden experienced debilitating headaches, initially diagnosed to be a symptom of a pinched nerve. Things took a turn in February 1988 after a medical emergency confirmed that he had a brain aneurysm. Given the severity of the aneurysm, doctors were not confident about Joe’s chances of survival. After Jill Biden stopped the hospital’s attempt to perform last rites and prayers for the then-senator, doctors proceeded with what was deemed a risky surgery.

Fortunately, the procedure went well, with a spokesperson for the Walter Reed Army Medical Center confirming to the Los Angeles Times that Joe was “awake, alert, and progressing satisfactorily” after the surgery. But this was not the end of his battle. In May 1988, the Delaware congressman underwent a second surgery correcting another aneurysm in his brain. “He is expected to be hospitalized for about 10 days and then would go home to recuperate,” a statement confirmed to The New York Times.

Expectedly, Joe’s health scare was a harrowing experience for Jill, who reportedly had to wear many hats to keep their family together. “For Jill, the diagnosis was the latest setback after a stressful year. She had spent months campaigning on his behalf, despite her discomfort with public speaking,” Katie Rogers, a former White House correspondent, wrote in “American Woman.” “She was raising their three children, Beau, Hunter, and Ashley, who were all in different stages of adjusting to school and life in Delaware.”

During a February 2022 speech for the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, Jill Biden reflected on the painful experience of watching her close friends live through breast cancer diagnoses. “Almost 30 years ago, four of my friends were diagnosed with breast cancer in one year,” Jill shared, revealing that only three of them survived. “One of my dear friends, Winnie lost her battle,” she added.

In her 2019 memoir “When The Light Enters,” Jill wrote about how difficult it was to see the toll the disease had on her friends and particularly Winnie. “I just couldn’t believe that this wonderful person — a mother of three children who adored and needed her — was about to die,” she wrote of her friend Winnie who passed on from the illness. Through her pain, however, Jill found purpose and soon started the Biden Breast Health Initiative, an organization through which she advocates for early breast cancer detection and prevention.

Unsurprisingly, Jill has also actively participated in the Cancer Moonshot project, an initiative first set up in 2016 during the Obama administration, which was relaunched in 2022 with a renewed dedication to investing in cancer research. During a visit to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in September 2023, Jill opened up about her and President Joe Biden’s decision to reignite the program, noting that they someday hope to make the world a place where “cancer is not a death sentence.”

In 2013, Beau Biden, a military veteran and then-attorney general of Delaware was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of brain cancer. Beau subsequently underwent treatment and eventually returned to his day-to-day life as attorney general. Though he did not seek re-election in 2014, Beau registered his interest to run for governor of the state in 2016. Beau’s dream sadly never came to be.

Two years after he was diagnosed, the cancer returned, leaving Beau hospitalized for a few days. On May 30, 2015, he died at the age of 46. “The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words,” the Bidens wrote in a statement released at the time. “We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us — especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children, Natalie and Hunter.”

Beau’s death left a gaping void, with his family describing him as “the finest man any of us have ever known.” Particularly, Jill Biden has been open about her grief in the aftermath of losing Beau. “It’s still taking me out,” she told Vogue in a 2020 interview. “There’s not a day that I don’t think about him. And I think Joe felt like he lost a part of his soul.”

During his teenage years, Joe Biden’s second son, Hunter Biden, picked up a drinking habit. By the time he was in college, Hunter had started trying out other substances, including cocaine. In the years that followed, however, Hunter went from recreational use to developing a dependence. “When I found myself making the decision to have another drink or get on a train, I knew I had a problem,” he shared in a 2019 interview with The New Yorker. Sadly, despite several attempts to get sober in the 2000s, Hunter struggled to overcome his addiction, suffering a relapse in 2010 after a seven-year sobriety journey.

In 2013, Hunter suffered another relapse, this time leading to his discharge from the Navy after testing positive for cocaine in 2014. “It was the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge. I respect the Navy’s decision. With the love and support of my family, I’m moving forward,” he said in a statement to CNN at the time.

Following Beau’s tragic death in 2015, Hunter sunk even deeper. “I was in a really dark place, not just with the physical destruction that that amount of drinking was doing to my body and my brain, but also [with] incredibly deep depression,” he shared in an interview with CBC’s Matt Galloway. Despite his struggles, Hunter has enjoyed unwavering love from his family including Jill, who told CNN in 2019 that she would always remain supportive of her son.

In January 2023, White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor released a medical report, revealing that Jill Biden had undergone a routine skin cancer checkup. During the checkup, a small lesion was found above her right eye. “The First Lady will undergo a common outpatient procedure known as Mohs surgery to remove and definitively remove the tissue,” O’Connor wrote in the report.

A few days later, O’Connor released another report, revealing that the lesion was basal cell carcinoma and adding that two other lesions, one on her chest and the other on her left eyelid, were removed during the Mohs surgery. “All cancerous tissue was successfully removed, and the margins were clear of any residual skin cancer cells,” the report read in part. O’Connor also noted that, unlike other types of cancer, basal cell carcinoma was less likely to metastasize to other parts of the body. But while Jill seemingly made a full recovery, she is not the only Biden to have had a skin cancer scare.

In March 2023, the White House revealed that President Joe Biden had also undergone a Mohs surgery after a previous health assessment confirmed he had a basal cell carcinoma lesion on his chest. “The area around the biopsy site was treated presumptively with electrodesiccation and curettage at the time of the biopsy. No further treatment is required,” Dr O’Connor reported.

Despite being fully vaccinated, Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 in August 2022 while on a family vacation in South Carolina. “After testing negative for COVID-19 on Monday during her regular testing cadence, the first lady began to develop cold-like symptoms late in the evening,” her spokesperson Elizabeth Alexander shared in a statement to The Washington Post. “She tested negative again on a rapid antigen test, but a PCR test came back positive.” Following a five-day quarantine period in South Carolina, the first lady tested negative for the virus, returning to her regular activities soon after.

A year later, however, Jill tested positive for the virus again, with the White House confirming that she was experiencing only mild symptoms. At the time, the first lady was slated to be a professor at the Northern Virginia Community College, which was curtailed by her positive COVID-19 test. Vanessa Valdivia, the first lady’s spokesperson, told CNN that Jill “[ensured] her classes are covered by a substitute.” She, however, made a quick recovery.

Similarly, while campaigning in July 2024, Joe Biden tested positive for the virus after experiencing some mild symptoms. He subsequently flew to his Delaware home where he self-isolated. A few days later, the president was back at the White House, having tested negative for the virus.

While her struggles might not have been publicized like her brother’s, Ashley Biden has had her share of struggles through the years. In 2009, a report surfaced claiming that a friend of Ashley’s was trying to sell a tape that showed the then 27-year-old using cocaine at a party. Shortly after that, the New York Post broke another story, claiming that Ashley had been arrested for marijuana possession as a teenager. While neither of these reports were confirmed, Ashley’s recovery diary, which was later stolen, would shine more light on her struggles over the years.

According to the diary, Ashley was enrolled in an outpatient rehabilitation facility around the time her father, Joe Biden, announced his intention to run in the 2020 presidential election. Shortly after the announcement, Ashley relapsed. Through it all, though, Jill and Joe continued showing up for their daughter. “Mom + dad worried but incredibly supportive,” one entry from Ashley’s diary read, as reported by Axios.

In April 2024, Aimee Harris, the woman who stole Ashley’s dairy and later sold it to conservative group Project Veritas, was sentenced to one month in prison, three months of home detention, and three years probation, for conspiracy to transport a stolen good across states. “I will forever have to deal with the fact that my personal journal can be viewed online … The despair I have often felt will never truly go away,” Ashley wrote in a letter to Judge Laura Taylor Swain, the presiding judge on Harris’s case.

Jill Biden was born in 1951 to Donald Jacobs, a bank executive and Navy veteran, and his wife, Bonny Jean Jacobs. She was the first of five children. Though they initially lived in New Jersey, the family later moved to Philadelphia due to Donald’s job in the bank. Jill has since painted a colorful picture of her childhood, admitting to occasionally being rebellious and naughty. “I loved to pull pranks and I would sneak out of school and run up to the hoagie shop that was on the corner, those kind of things — innocent things,” she shared in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

While much is not known of the first lady’s relationship with her parents, she has since credited them for teaching her the value of familial love. “My parents truly gave me a gift, in that we were raised … in a household where there was just so much love and support,” Jill opened up in the Inquirer interview. Unsurprisingly, Donald and Bonny’s death were a tough pill to swallow.

In her memoir, “Where the Light Enters,” Jill documented the impact of losing her mom in 2008 after she was diagnosed with lymphoma. “It was so hard to let her go — emotionally, physically, spiritually. She left before I was done needing her,” the former first lady wrote.Jill had experienced similar heartache nearly a decade earlier when her father Donald died from brain cancer at the age of 72. Bonny was 78 at the time of her death.

In September 2023, Hunter Biden was slammed with a three-count indictment over a gun he bought in 2018. Filed by Delaware special counsel David Weiss, Hunter was accused of lying about his addiction on an ATF form and owning a gun while having an addiction. Three months later, he was indicted on nine tax-related charges accusing him of deliberate tax evasion over a three-year period. “As alleged in the indictment, to further this scheme, Hunter Biden spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills,” Weiss claimed in the indictment.

Though Hunter took a plea deal — which was painfully ironic for Donald Trump — for the nine tax charges, his gun case went to trial, eventually resulting in a conviction in June 2024. In the wake of the conviction, President Joe Biden declared that he would “accept the outcome” and “respect the judicial process,” while Jill stated she would be staying strong for her son. “Hunter was strong, and so I have to take his example and get out there and start fighting again,” she said in an interview with NBC News.

In a dramatic turn of events, the president granted Hunter an unconditional presidential pardon in December 2024, claiming that his son had been “singled out” by his political opponents. If you were wondering about Jill’s reaction to the pardon, Mama Bear has since declared herself to be in support of Joe’s decision.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).