All About Joe Biden's 4 Children
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In addition to being president of the United States, Joe Biden assumes another very important role: Dad.
He welcomed his first three children, sons Beau and Hunter and daughter Naomi, with his late wife Neilia Hunter. Joe had his fourth child, daughter Ashley, during his second marriage to first lady Jill Biden.
Despite Joe's busy schedule as president, he's made it a point to uphold his duties as a dad. His family has been an integral part of his life, in part due to a number of personal tragedies he's faced, including the deaths of his late wife Neilia, daughter Naomi and son Beau.
Since his days in the U.S. Senate, he's had an unwritten rule to uphold family responsibilities. "If I find out you are working with me while missing important family responsibilities, it will disappoint me greatly," he wrote in a 2014 letter to his staff.
RELATED: Naomi Biden's Grandpa Joe Might Be President, but They Still Chat 'Every Single Day'
His kids have acknowledged their dad's commitment to them over the years, often praising his kind character. "Dad is so empathetic and has the ability to recognize pain, to feel others' pain and to comfort," Ashley told Today. "We have a rule still today that no matter where dad is, no matter what meeting he's in, if one of the kids call, you have to let him know."
Keep scrolling for everything to know about President Biden's four children.
Beau Biden
Mark Wilson/Getty Beau Biden at the Democratic National Convention in 2008
Beau was Joe's eldest son, born on Feb. 3, 1969, with the legal name Joseph Robinette Biden III, after his father and grandfather. His mom was Neilia, Joe's first wife who died in a car crash in December 1972. Beau was also in the vehicle during the tragedy and was 4 years old at the time.
Although he survived the fatal wreck, Beau was badly injured. When Joe was sworn into the U.S. Senate in 1973, he did so at a hospital bedside in Wilmington, Delaware — which he rarely left when his children were recovering from injuries.
Beau graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and Syracuse University College of Law, like his father. Upon graduation, he worked as counsel to the Office of Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Justice in Philadelphia and later as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office from 1995 to 2004.
In 2003, he joined the Delaware Army National Guard and attained the rank of major in the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps. Beau was deployed to Iraq in 2008 and served on active duty overseas until late 2009.
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Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty
Following his military service, Beau ran for attorney general of Delaware in 2006 and won. He was reelected in November 2010 and served two terms.
Beau was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in August 2013 and received radiation and chemotherapy treatments in the two years that followed. In May 2015, Beau died at the age of 46.
Joe shared a very close bond with his eldest son and penned a 2017 memoir in his name. Titled Promise Me, Dad, the book touches on conversations between the father and son during Beau's final days.
Like Joe, Beau was a family man. He dedicated much of his time to his wife, Hallie Olivere, and their kids, Natalie Biden and Robert Biden II.
RELATED: Inside Vice President Joe Biden's Family Tragedies
Hunter Biden
Paul Morigi/Getty Images Hunter Biden
Hunter, whose legal name is Robert Hunter Biden, is Joe and Neilia's second son, born on Feb. 4, 1970. He was also in the car during the December 1972 crash that killed Neilia and survived alongside his brother, Beau. Hunter was 2 years old at the time of the tragedy.
After graduating from Georgetown University in 1992, he met Kathleen Buhle whom he wed in 1993. They share three children together: daughters Naomi, Finnegan, and Maisy.
Upon graduating from Yale Law School in 1996, he worked as a lobbyist and in private equity — sparking controversy at MBNA (a bank holding company) due to his father's ties with the corporation.
Personal troubles continued for Hunter in the years that followed. One month after he was commissioned in the Naval Reserve as a public affairs officer, he was discharged in February 2014 after testing positive for cocaine use. (His addiction, among other controversies, later became topics that Donald Trump routinely attacked him for throughout his father's 2020 campaign.)
RELATED: What We Know and Don't Know About the Investigation of Hunter Biden
Teresa Kroeger/Getty Hunter (left) and Joe Biden
Soon after, Hunter joined the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company, where he was reportedly paid up to $50,000 per month. His duties (which ended in 2019) came under scrutiny because of his father's vice presidency and Hunter's apparent lack of qualifications as a lawyer and former lobbyist.
In August 2015, Hunter faced controversy again when a data leak showed him as a registered user of Ashley Madison, a dating website for people seeking extramarital affairs. (Hunter vehemently denied that he ever registered for the website.)
That same year, Hunter and Kathleen filed a consent motion to end their marriage in a "dignified, respectful and family-focused manner." They eventually finalized their divorce in 2017 after 24 years of marriage.
Following his split from Kathleen and Beau's death in 2015, Hunter developed a romance with his brother's widow and former sister-in-law, Hallie, which he and the Biden family later confirmed in a statement to Page Six in 2017.
RELATED: Kathleen Buhle, Hunter Biden's Ex, to Address Their Divorce in Book: 'I Lost My Sense of Who I Was'
Paul Morigi/Getty Hunter Biden
In 2018, a woman named Lunden Roberts claimed Hunter fathered her daughter. While Hunter denied paternity of the child, DNA testing later confirmed Roberts' claims.
When Hunter and Hallie split in 2019, he married Melissa Cohen that same year just days after meeting (they share one son together, Beau, named after Hunter's late brother).
Since early 2019, Hunter and his father have been the subjects of unsupported claims of corrupt activities in a Biden-Ukraine conspiracy theory pushed by then-President Donald Trump, regarding Hunter's business in Ukraine and Joe's anti-corruption efforts there. Hunter was at the center of controversy surrounding his involvement in a Chinese investment company, his questionable art career and an investigation of his found laptop.
Naomi Biden
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Joe and Neilia (pictured above) welcomed their third child, Naomi, on Nov. 8, 1971. She died at the age of one during the 1972 car crash that also killed her mom. In the years that followed, Joe has been vocal about his losses and how they've affected him and his family.
Most recently, he delivered an emotional speech about the Uvalde shooting at the Texas elementary school. "To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. There's a hollowness in your chest, you feel like you're being sucked into it," Joe said. "And it's never quite the same."
Hunter's daughter Naomi is named in her honor.
RELATED: Joe Biden's History of Love and Loss and How His Late Son's Death Changed His Political Future
Ashley Biden
Mary Kouw/CBS via Getty
Ashley is the youngest of Joe's children, born on June 8, 1981. She is the first and only child Joe and Jill share together.
She graduated with a bachelor's degree from Tulane University and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice in 2010. That same year, she met Howard Krein through her late brother, Beau. They wed in a joint Catholic-Jewish church service in 2012.
After graduation, Ashley began her career in social work. Thanks to her parents' political influence, she has dedicated her life to giving back to the underserved communities around her. Notably, she worked for the Delaware Department of Services for Children, Youth, and Their Families for 15 years and served as the executive director for the Delaware Center for Justice from 2014 to 2019.
RELATED: Was Ashley Biden's Diary Stolen? How the President's Daughter Got Caught in Legal Fight After a Leak
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In 2017, she combined her commitment to social justice with her passion for fashion. After launching Livelihood Inc., a "socially and ethically conscious apparel company," she teamed up with Gilt to sell a collection of hoodies with 100 percent of net proceeds donated to Livelihood's community development initiatives.
Ashley appeared with her dad on the campaign trail a number of times leading up to the 2020 election. Ashley could be seen dancing on stage after his victory speech.
Recently, she was the center of an investigation after her diary was stolen and sold to Project Veritas — a self-described "non-profit journalism enterprise" with a history of undercover operations and other secretive tactics that critics have long said are far more manipulative than journalistic.
