The False Rumor About Joe Biden's Age Gap With Wife Jill That Caused A Stir
Misinformation about President Joe Biden's age gap with First Lady Jill Biden has circulated throughout their stay in the White House, with social media posts falsely asserting that the New Jersey native was a minor at the start of their relationship. Iterations of this claim were captured by AFP Fact Check as early as February 2021, with the outlet disproving a Facebook post that stated that Jill was 15 years old and Biden was in his 30s when the two first started dating.
"She used to be the [B]iden family babysitter," the post incorrectly stated. USA Today similarly debunked a now-deleted Instagram post from October 2022 that paired the same photo of the young couple with audio of the president saying, "She was 12, I was 30." The audio was not about his relationship with Jill, but paired with the photo, it gave the false impression of a deeply problematic age gap between the political figures.
Joe and Jill admittedly have a notable age gap of nine years, being born in November 1942 and June 1951, respectively. It might not have been love at first sight for the Bidens, but they were both over the age of 18 when they first met, a love story that has been well-documented by the media.
How Jill and Joe Biden first met
By the time Jill Biden (then Jill Jacobs) met Joe Biden in 1975, she was a college senior studying at the University of Delaware and had already been married and divorced. Joe had also been previously married, with his first wife Neilia dying in a tragic car accident alongside their daughter in 1972. The accident also injured their two sons, Beau and Hunter, but the young boys survived the crash.
Joe and Jill had briefly met at a social event, but they were officially put in touch through Joe's brother. Apparently, Jill first caught Joe's eye when he saw her featured in a local advertisement, though it's unclear if this is the reason his brother passed along her contact info or if it was just a happy coincidence. "How did you get this number?" the first lady recalled asking Joe in a tweet, though she did eventually agree to go on a date with him.
"How did you get this number?"
Those were the first words I spoke to Joe when he called me out of the blue on a Saturday in 1975.
I'll be speaking tonight at the #DemConvention. I hope you'll tune in! pic.twitter.com/t0amDEM2kT
— Dr. Jill Biden (@DrBiden) August 18, 2020
"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,'" Jill recounted to Vogue in 2016, admitting that she was weary of their nine-year age difference. "But we went out to see 'A Man and a Woman' at the movie theater in Philadelphia, and we really hit it off." That night would turn out to be just the beginning of their lifelong love story.
The truth about the Biden age gap rumors
Despite the true start of Jill and Joe Biden's relationship being recounted by both parties on several occasions, the false rumor that she was a minor when they began dating has been widespread. Many of these inaccurate claims use a real photo of Jill and Joe Biden that was taken in 1976, when they were around 24-25 and 33-34, respectively, as "proof" of their inappropriate romance.
However, the audio of the president that incorrectly accompanied one such post was taken from a speech delivered at the Democratic National Committee Event in Septemeber 2022. "We go back a long way," he says of an unnamed audience member, as the speech transcript recounts. "She was 12; I was 30." It's unclear who he was referring to, with many finding the comment off-putting even in context, but it's mathematically impossible for Joe to be referring to his wife in the comment.
As for the proliferation of the false rumor, AFP Fact Check connects the disinformation to the QAnon conspiracy group, a once-fringe political movement that believes former president Donald Trump Jr. was elected to disperse an alleged Satan-worshipping cabal of pedophiles that is secretly running the government. It's unclear if the Biden age-gap story originated with the group, but it does appear to be in line with many of their beliefs. While there have been claims of sexual misconduct made against Joe Biden, there has been no evidence of child abuse or pedophilia.