The work of being first lady is never over, no matter what’s going on in the world. Dr. Jill Biden was out fundraising this week at the Lotos Club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and she brought with her a classic tale of boy meets girl.
Speaking to those gathered, the first lady recounted her early romance with her husband. “It was the ‘70s,” she said, setting the scene, according to Date/” target=”_blank”>Page Six. “…It was Vietnam, love beads, equal rights. I wore my hair down to the middle of my waist, and so did most of the men I dated…Remember what you were wearing then? Clogs, bell-bottoms, tie-dyes.”
Dr. Biden is conjuring the anti-war movement to make a point here, namely that her now husband was a square. He asked her on a date “out of the blue” (it was a blind date orchestrated by Biden’s brother, as the president previously told Drew Barrymore). “That evening a handsome young senator showed up at my door,” she said. “I took one look at his perfect suit and his leather loafers and I thought, Thank God it’s only one date!”
“Well, one date eventually turned into a marriage proposal,” she added, per Page Six. “And okay, if I am being completely honest, it was five proposals, because this was not part of my plan.”
Mrs. Biden mentioned that there was a lot of things to think about, especially since the then senator was a widower who had also lost a daughter, and was raising two boys, Hunter and Beau. “So eventually I realized that my love for Joe and the boys outweighed any fears I had, and I said yes. And here we are 46 years later,” she said.
As he told Barrymore, on the fifth time, he had returned from South Africa, where he had been “trying to see Nelson Mandela.” He recalled, “I said, ‘I’m asking you one more time.’ I said, ‘You don’t have to say when, but if. If you say no, I understand, and that’s it.’ I looked at her and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ She goes, ‘Okay.’ Swear to God.”