President-elect Joe Biden has had a long-standing political career—and his children and family have been in the public eye almost as long as he has.
The former Delaware Senator served as Vice President to Barack Obama from 2008 to 2016, and will be the 46th President of the U.S. after multiple networks (Fox News, CNN, ABC News, and more) called the 2020 election on Saturday, Nov. 7.
That night, Biden took the stage with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and gave a victory speech from Wilmington, Delaware. In his speech, he urged people to unite, saying: "I’m humbled by the trust and confidence you have placed in me. I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but unify. Who doesn’t see red states and blue states, only sees the United States."
Biden also spoke about his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, and children and grandchildren, who joined him on stage after his speech ended. Despite being a public figure, Biden has tried to protect his family's privacy over the years.
Many people know of Biden’s sons, Hunter and Beau, but he is actually the father of four children: Naomi, Beau, Hunter, and Ashley. He had his three eldest children (Hunter, Beau and Naomi) with Neilia . After she died, Biden eventually married his second wife, Jill Jacobs, in 1977. They share Biden's youngest daughter, Ashley.
Here’s everything you need to know about Joe Biden's children—and grandchildren.
Naomi Biden
Biden's daughter, Naomi, was only 1 year old when she and Neilia both died in a car accident in 1972.
Joseph 'Beau' Biden
Biden named his eldest son after himself, though he was better known by his nickname: Beau.
Beau had an impressive military career: He joined the Army National Guard as a major in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps in 2003.
Like his father, Beau also delved into politics and became the 44th attorney general of Delaware from 2007 until 2015. Biden believed his son’s political prospects were bright, saying, "I was pretty sure Beau could run for president someday, and, with his brother’s help, he could win," according to The Hill.
Beau married his wife, Hallie Olivere, in 2002, and they had two children: daughter Natalie Biden and son Robert Hunter Biden II. Beau announced his intention to run for governor of Delaware in the 2016 election, but he passed away in 2015 at age 46 after a battle with brain cancer.
The death impacted Biden and Jill immensely. "After our son, Beau, died of cancer, I wondered if I would ever smile or feel joy again," Dr. Biden said in her DNC speech on Tuesday night, per The New York Times. "It was summer, but there was no warmth left for me."
And she also talked about how inspiring Biden was as he walked through the grief of losing his son. "There are times when I couldn’t imagine how he did it—how he put one foot in front of the other and kept going," Jill said. "But I’ve always understood why he did it."
Robert Hunter Biden
Biden’s second son, Hunter (he goes by his middle name) is now 50 and works as an attorney for a New York-based law firm. He’s also the founder of the venture capital firm Eudora Global and served as chairman of the World Food Program USA board from 2011 to 2015.
Recently, there have been disputed reports about his connections and business dealings overseas, but they’ve been disproven by Politco, New York Times multiple times, and The Washington Post. And, additional unproven claims circulating on Facebook were traced to an anonymous internet forum that’s a known source of online disinformation, per The Poynter Institute's Politifact.
Hunter’s personal life has also made headlines, due to his struggles with drugs and alcohol, per ABC News, as well as his divorce from ex-wife Kathleen Buhle in 2017. The co-parents share three children: Naomi, Finnegan, and Maisey Biden.
Hunter has another child (whose identity has been kept anonymous) with a woman in Arkansas, Lunden Alexis Roberts. The paternity of that child was the subject of a now-resolved 2018 court case determining Hunter was the father, according to the Texarkana Gazette.
Soon after Hunter separated from Kathleen, he began dating his brother's widow, Hallie Biden. "We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness," Joe Biden told Page Six in 2017. "They have mine and Jill’s full and complete support and we are happy for them."
The couple broke up in April 2019, Page Six exclusively reported. A source close to the family told the publication it was a private matter. It’s still unclear why the couple broke up, but sources added that the split was "amicable."
A month later, in May 2019, Hunter married Melissa Cohen, a South African filmmaker, the Washington Post reported. When asked to comment on his family life for a January 2019 article in Vanity Fair, Hunter wrote in a statement, "The important aspect of my complicated divorce (like all divorces) and an equally complicated life, marked by the tragic loss of my mother, sister and brother is this: My father has been a constant source of love and strength in my life."
Ashley Blazer Biden
Ashley, 38, is the youngest of the Biden kids. She graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans and got a master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania. She was the former executive director of the Delaware Center for Justice, a nonprofit advocacy group, and also a social worker for the state’s Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, according to DelawareOnline.com.
Now, she’s devoted to her charitable clothing line, Livelihood, per Newsweek. She is married to Dr. Howard Krein, a plastic surgeon at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.
Joe Biden also has seven grandkids:
Naomi Biden
Naomi might the most prominent of Biden’s grandchildren. Naomi (who is the daughter of Hunter, and named after her late aunt) recently tweeted a sweet sentiment about her grandfather, writing: "I am proud to be your granddaughter every single day @JoeBiden. But tonight, I am just as proud to be an American."
After Biden accepted the Democratic nomination for president, Naomi sweetly shared on Twitter that she and her cousins gave their grandfather—who they call "Pop"—some ice cream. "Pop, tonight you eat from the box," they wrote in a cute handwritten note.
She also wrote this on Twitter the morning after the election: "Growing up whenever I doubted myself, felt anxious or scared, my Pop would say to me 'failure at some point in life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.' It must’ve finally sunk in because win or lose, I know I’ll be ok, you’ll be ok, America, will be ok. We got this."
She and her boyfriend, Peter Neal, created MyCaresActBenefits.com, an online tool to help people check CARES Act benefits eligibility. "It was a very intimidating prospect to figure out how to create a website, and how to do the quiz and code the calculator," Naomi told MTV News.
Finnegan Biden
Finnegan is the younger sister of Naomi. She was named after Joe Biden’s mother, Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Finnegan Biden, per USA Today. Finnegan has also been on the campaign trail, and even appeared in a campaign video for her grandfather, alongside Naomi and several of her other cousins.
She keeps a fairly low profile and is a senior at the University of Pennsylvania. She's been active in school politics in high school and in college. This spring, Finnegan successfully petitioned Penn's administration to extend pass/fail grading options, per The Daily Pennsylvanian.
Maisy Biden
Maisy is the youngest of Hunter and Kathleen’s children. Fun fact about Maisy: She’s tight with Sasha Obama, according to the Chicago Tribune. The friends went to the same school and even played basketball together. Her presidential candidate grandfather told The Hill in one interview that the two are "best friends."
Maisy and the other granddaughters encouraged Biden to enter the presidential race. "We just knew he had to run, and we weren't going to take no for an answer," they told Good Morning America.
Natalie Biden
Natalie is the teenage daughter of the late Beau and his wife, Hallie. She appeared in a video for the 2020 Democratic National Convention and had this to say about her grandmother, Jill: "She’s not your average grandmother. She's a prankster, she's very mischievous."
Robert Hunter II
Robert hasn’t been in the public eye as much as his cousins, but he did join them in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at the 2020 Democratic National Convention:
Baby Biden
Hunter has another child (whose identity has been kept anonymous) with a woman in Arkansas, Lunden Alexis Roberts. The paternity of that child was the subject of a now-resolved 2018 court case determining Hunter was the father, according to the Texarkana Gazette.
Baby Biden 2
Hunter welcomed another baby on March 28, 2020 with his new wife, Melissa Cohen. The baby, whose name has not been publicly shared, is a "beautiful and healthy baby boy," according to Page Six.
