Jill Tracy Jacobs was born on 3rd June 1951, in New Jersey.
She is the eldest of five sisters.
Her father, Donald Carl, was a banker after his time in the army, and her mother, Bonny Jean, was a stay-at-home mum.
Her family name was originally Giacoppo but her family changed it to Jacobs when they moved to the US from Italy.
Her parents described themselves as ‘atheist realists’ but she attended church with her grandmother. She was confirmed when she turned 16.
Jill Jacobs started working as a waitress in Ocean City, New Jersey, when she was fifteen.
She first studied fashion and arts at the University of Delaware, but found it unsatisfying.
Jill Jacobs married college football player Bill Stevenson in 1970, but the couple quickly drifted apart.
The couple separated in 1974 and got a divorce in 1975.
She met Senator Joe Biden in March 1975 through his brother.
She had gone to university with Joe Biden's brother, Frank, and he set them up on a blind date.
Despite being nine years older than her, Joe Biden impressed Jill thanks to his perfect manners.
Joe Biden had proposed several times before Jill accepted. She was reportedly hesitant to enter the spotlight, and eager to continue her teaching career.
She raised Joe's two sons, Beau and Hunter, and they called her ‘mum’ although she never officially adopted them.
Joe and Jill Biden welcomed their daughter Ashley in 1981, and Jill took two years off work to raise their three children.
In the 1980s, Jill Biden taught emotionally disabled students at the Rockford Center psychiatric hospital.
Jill Biden started the Biden Breast Health Initiative, an nonprofit organization which provides education on breast cancer in 1993 after four of her friends were diagnosed.
Jill Biden is a runner. She runs five miles, five times a week, and she participated in the Marine Corps Marathon, as well as the Philadelphia Half Marathon.
While her husband was running for the 2008 presidential campaign alongside Barack Obama, she continued to teach at a community college in Delaware.
She became the Second Lady of the United States in 2009, when her husband became the Vice-President.
Throughout her husband's time in Office, she continued teaching, making her the first Second Lady to hold a paying job.
In 2015, her stepson Beau Biden died of brain cancer. She described the loss as ‘totally shattering’. She said:
‘My life changed in an instant. All during his illness, I truly believed that he was going to live, up until the moment that he closed his eyes, and I just never gave up hope.'
In 2019, Dr. Jill Biden wrote a memoir entitled Where the Light Enters: Building a Family, Discovering Myself. In it, she says she is grateful to have been Second Lady, but 'The role I have always felt most at home in is being 'Dr. B.'', which is what her students have always called her.
During the 2020 Super Tuesday primaries, Dr. Jill Biden made the headlines as she physically stopped a protester from getting to her husband. When asked about the stiff-arm she used, she simply answered ‘I’m a good Philly girl'.
She has continuously pushed women to vote, saying ‘You will decide, you, the women, will decide the future of this state and this state may determine the entire election’ during a meeting in Pennsylvania.
On 20 January 2021, Joe Biden became President of the United States, making Dr. Jill Biden the first woman to hold both Second and First Lady roles since Barbara Bush. Aged 69, she was also the oldest woman to take on the role.
As well as moving into the White House as First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden continued teaching remotely because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and grading papers until late in her office.
Dr. Jill Biden went back to teaching at community college, and her classes were advertised as taught by ‘staff’ to avoid students coming in for the sole purpose of talking to the First Lady. Security measurers were also tightened, with students having to walk through a metal detector.
In January 2023, Jill Biden underwent Mohs surgery to remove two basal-cell carcinomas from her face and chest.
Dr. Jill Biden turned 73 on 3 June 2024.
