As the President of the United States, Joe Biden and his family were of course invited to King Charles' Coronation today. Joe couldn't make it himself but one of his grandchildren, his granddaughter Finnegan, caught the attention of everyone at home when she made her entrance alongside her grandmother Jill in a pale yellow cape and matching midi dress.
Her outfit was such a slay that 'Finnegan Biden' is now a breakout search term. So, in case you're curious about his family too, here's everything you need to know about Joe Biden's children, grandchildren, and all of his marriages:
Who is Joe Biden's granddaughter Finnegan?
Finnegan the second child of Joe's son Hunter Biden and Kathleen Buhle, and she's named after her great-grandmother (Joe Biden's mum), Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden. She has an older sister, Naomi Biden, and a younger sister, Maisy Biden. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2001 and often accompanies her grandparents to public events, like the Coronation.
Who was Joe Biden’s first wife?
On 27 August 1966 Joe Biden and Neilia Hunter, a student at Syracuse University, were married at a Catholic church in Skaneateles, New York. The two had met in the Bahamas while Biden was on spring break. After their wedding, the couple moved to Wilmington, Delaware and had three children: Joseph Robinette ‘Beau’, Robert Hunter and Naomi Christina. Neilia worked as a teacher.
Tragically, only a few weeks after Biden was elected senator, on 18 December 1972, Neilia was driving to buy a Christmas tree with her children when her car was struck by a lorry. Neilia and the children were taken to the hospital where she and Naomi were pronounced dead on arrival. Beau and Hunter suffered serious injuries, but survived the accident.
Speaking at a Yale University commencement speech in 2015, Biden stated, ‘Six weeks after my election, my whole world was altered forever. While I was in Washington hiring staff, I got a phone call. My wife and three children were Christmas shopping, a tractor trailer broadsided them and killed my wife and killed my daughter. And they weren’t sure that my sons would live.’
‘Many people have gone through things like that. But because I had the incredible good fortune of an extended family, grounded in love and loyalty, imbued with a sense of obligation imparted to each of us, I not only got help. But by focusing on my sons, I found my redemption.’
Who is Joe Biden’s second wife?
After the death of his wife and daughter, Biden commuted from Delaware to Washington, D.C. everyday to see his sons. The tragedy had left him feeling hopeless and angry and wrote in his book Promise To Keep that he ‘felt God had played a horrible trick’ on him. He credits meeting his second wife, Jill Tracy Jacobs, with bringing him back to life.
Born in New Jersey and a graduate of the University of Delaware, Jill and Joe met on a blind date in 1975. Famously, Biden proposed to Jill five times before she said yes because she felt the seriousness of their marriage. In an interview with Vogue, she said, ‘By that time, of course, I had fallen in love with the boys, and I really felt that this marriage had to work. Because they had lost their mom, and I couldn’t have them lose another mother.’
The two were married in New York on 17 June 1977 and have one child together, a daughter named Ashley.
Jill earned her first Master’s degree in Reading in 1981 from West Chester University and her second Master’s degree in English in 1987 from Villanova University. She was an English composition teacher at Delaware Technical and Community College and earned her doctorate in Education from the University of Delaware in 2007.
While she was Second Lady, Jill continued to work as a full-time teacher and has stated that she plans to continue to teach while First Lady.
Who are Joe Biden’s children?
Joseph ‘Beau’ Biden
The eldest son of President Biden, Beau was also a politician who was quickly rising through the ranks of the Democratic party. He joined the National Guard in 2003 as Major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps and served overseas in Iraq. In 2007, he was elected as the Delaware attorney general, a position in which he served until 2015.
How did Joe Biden's son, Beau Biden, die?
In 2013, following a stroke a few years before, Beau was diagnosed with brain cancer. He had surgery, radiation and chemotherapy treatment and remained stable after. However, in May 2015 he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Centre as the cancer had returned. He died 10 days later, on 20 May 2015 at the age of 46.
Robert Hunter Biden
Hunter Biden is a lawyer and founding partner of investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners. Hunter has found himself caught in tabloid drama due to his issues with substance abuse. Speaking to the New Yorker, Hunter stated, ‘Look, everybody faces pain. Everybody has trauma. There’s addiction in every family. I was in that darkness. I was in that tunnel—it’s a never-ending tunnel. You don’t get rid of it. You figure out how to deal with it.’
In December 2020, Hunter made a public announcement that his tax affairs are under federal crime investigations.
Naomi Biden
Biden’s third child and first daughter, Naomi, was tragically killed in a car accident alongside her mother in 1972.
Ashley Biden
Biden’s only child with second wife, Jill, Ashley Biden is a social worker, activist, philanthropist and fashion designer. She worked at the executive director of the Delaware Centre for Justice, a criminal justice reform-oriented non-profit and in 2017, she founded Livelihood, an American-made clothing company focused on racial inequality.
During the inauguration celebration, she made waves for her sophisticated look, wearing a tux and slick back pony. Quite frankly, we are obsessed.
Who are Joe Biden’s grandchildren?
Naomi Biden
Naomi Biden is the oldest of Joe Biden’s grandchildren, born in December 1993 to Hunter and his first wife, Kathleen. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016 (in the same class as Tiffany Trump, ironically) where she studied international relations. In May, she graduated from Columbia Law School. She has a public Twitter and Instagram account, where she regularly shared behind-the-scenes snaps of her grandad and other Biden family members.
Finnegan Biden
Next up in Naomi’s little sister, 16-year-old Finnegan. She was named after Joe Biden’s mother and is also a student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Maisy Biden
Maisy is the youngest sister of Naomi and Finnegan and is the same age as Sasha Obama. Talking to The Hill in 2019, Joe said the Bidens and the Obamas had a joint graduation party for the girls. Maisy can be found on TikTok.
Natalie Biden
Natalie is the oldest child of Beau and his wife, Hallie.
Robert ‘Hunter’ Biden
Named after his uncle, Hunter is Beau and Hallie’s second child.
Baby Biden 2018
In 2018, Hunter Biden welcomed a child with Lunden Alexis Roberts of Arkansas. Hunter originally denied claims he was the father, but a judge ruled that he is the biological and legal father of the baby.
Baby Biden 2020
The youngest Biden grandchild is a baby welcomed in 2020 to Hunter Biden and his new wife, Melissa Cohen.