Joe Biden's first wife, Neilia (née Hunter) died in 1972 in a car accident, aged 30. Their daughter Naomi, born the previous year, also died in the accident, but their sons – Joseph Robinette Biden III, known as Beau, and Hunter (aged 3 and 2) – both survived despite multiple serious injuries. Two weeks later, Biden was sworn into the Senate at Wilmington General Hospital, where Beau and Hunter were being treated.
Police determined that Neilia had not seen the oncoming truck that her vehicle collided with, probably because she was looking the other way, and had pulled into its path.
In March 1975 Biden met Jill Stevenson (née Jacobs) on a blind date arranged by his brother Frank, who'd known her in college. Jill graduated from the University of Delaware later that year, and embarked on a career in teaching. She had separated from her first husband, a former college football player named Bill Stevenson, in 1974, after two years of marriage. They were undergoing divorce proceedings at the time she met Biden, and the divorce was granted in May 1975.
Joe and Jill were married two years later. They have a daughter, named Ashley, born in 1981.
Beau Biden qualified as a lawyer, and in 2007 he was elected as Delaware's Attorney General. But his health soon began to deteriorate; in 2010 he suffered a mild stroke, and in 2013 he was diagnosed as suffering from brain cancer. He died in 2015, aged 46.
Hunter Biden is also a qualified lawyer, who has worked as a hedge fund, venture capital, and private equity fund investor. In June 2021 he was described as "an exhibiting artist".
Wikipedia describes Ashley Biden as a "social worker, activist, philanthropist, and fashion designer." She worked as a social worker for Delaware's Children's Services Department for 15 years, and in 2017 she launched the Livelihood Collection – an ethical fashion clothing brand.
© Haydn Thompson 2021