The Biden Family Tree Explained
President Joe Biden is a family man. He has never made any secret of that and frequently invokes his wife, children, and grandchildren in his speeches. He has had tragedy in his life, and when he speaks of what he's gone through in losing children he becomes relatable to many. When you look at photos or videos of his official presidential nomination and his inauguration, you can see how close the Biden family is, but who are all these loving family members around the 46th president?
Biden's family tree can be complicated, especially with so many family members and extended family, but ultimately, it starts in Ireland with the Blewit family from County Mayo and the Finnegan family from County Louth. Both families emigrated to the United States in the late 19th century and eventually settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where the president was born, according to The Irish Times.
Joe Biden and his two siblings, Valerie and James, spent part of their childhood in Scranton, but eventually the family moved to Delaware (via Distractify), and that's where the rest of the president's family story begins with his first marriage to Neilia Hunter.
Joe Biden's first wife and their children
It was 1966 when young attorney Joe Biden married Neilia Hunter. The couple had three children together, Joseph "Beau" Biden, Robert Hunter Biden, and Naomi "Amy" Biden, according to Vogue. They were a happy family and things were looking up for them as Joe Biden was elected to the Senate in the fall of 1972, becoming one of the youngest people ever elected to that body just shy of 30 years old (via The Washington Post).
Soon after that, tragedy struck when Neilia was Christmas shopping with her children and was in a car accident. Neilia and Naomi, who was just a baby, were killed. Beau and Hunter were injured and hospitalized for months, with the new senator famously holding his swearing-in ceremony from their hospital bedside (via HuffPost).
The young senator remained a single father for several years until he met English teacher Jill Jacobs in 1975. The pair was married in 1977, giving Joe Biden the complete family he desired (via whitehouse.gov).
Joe and Jill Biden raise three children
Young Beau and Hunter Biden eventually thought of Jill as their mother and they welcomed a sister, Ashley, in 1981. Beau Biden was born in 1969 and grew up to become a lawyer, just like his father, and was eventually elected as the attorney general of Delaware. Sadly, Beau Biden passed away from brain cancer in 2015 (via Vogue).
Hunter Biden was born in 1970 and also followed in his father's and brother's footsteps to become a lawyer. Hunter has made no secret of his struggle with addiction, according to Vogue. He has also been a frequent target of former President Donald Trump, as Hunter served in an advisory position with a Ukrainian energy company known as Burisma, whose owner was under an investigation by the Ukrainian government. In fact, Trump was impeached the first time for allegedly pressuring Ukraine's president to investigate Hunter's time on the board (via Reuters).
Ashley Biden is the only biological child of both Joe and Jill Biden and is a former social worker who founded a company called Livelihood, which is described as an ethical fashion company. She is married to a plastic surgeon named Howard Krein (via Vogue).
Meet Hunter Biden's children
Joe and Jill Biden raised their three children while she taught English and he served in the United States Senate. Those three children grew up to have their own children, giving the Bidens those happy grandkids who gathered around their "Pop" to hug him and cheer after the 2020 election was called for him on November 7, more than three days after the polls closed, as granddaughter Naomi posted on Twitter that morning.
The Bidens have seven grandchildren all together, including five granddaughters and two grandsons. The first of the Biden granddaughters is Naomi, Hunter's oldest daughter with his first wife, Kathleen. Naomi was named for her aunt who died when she was just a year old in 1972 (via Vogue). She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania and later earned her graduate degree at Columbia University in New York, according to Town & Country.
Finnegan Biden is Naomi's younger sister and was a frequent 2020 campaign fixture, as she traveled with her grandfather during his quest to become president during a pandemic. Naomi and Finnegan's younger sister, Maisy, also campaigned for her grandfather in 2020. (via Town & Country).
Hunter also has a younger son named Beau with his second wife, Melissa, who was born in 2020, according to The Associated Press. The Sun reports that Hunter has a fourth daughter who was born in 2018 named Navy Joan and that a paternity test proves he is the father.
Meet Beau Biden's children
Beau Biden married Hallie Olivere in 2002 and the pair had two children together before his tragic death in 2015. They gave Joe and Jill Biden a fourth granddaughter with Natalie Biden, who also campaigned for her grandfather in 2020. Natalie even spoke of her grandmother in a video played at the Democratic National Convention, according to Town & Country.
"I would say she's not your average grandmother," Natalie said. "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" (via TODAY.com).
The Biden family tree was rounded out when Beau and Hallie gave his parents their first grandson with the birth of Robert "Hunter" Biden. The teenage boy uses the name Hunter just like his uncle and was also seen in videos played at the Democratic National Convention.