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Thursday, 28 March 2024

Dr. Jill Biden: First Lady in waiting

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Dr. Jill Biden: First Lady in waiting
Dr. Jill Biden: First Lady in waiting

[NFA] America's next first lady Dr. Jill Biden, who holds four degrees, including a doctorate, plans to keep her day job after moving into the White House.

Yahaira Jacquez reports.

"Hi, everyone.

I'm Jill Biden's husband." That is how President-elect Joe Biden often introduces himself.

As the husband of Dr. Jill Biden -- a college English professor with four degrees, including a doctorate.

As America's next First Lady, Biden could reshape the role.

Jill Biden: "I have always loved the sounds of a classroom." The 69-year-old plans to keep her day job and continue teaching at Northern Virginia Community college.

Something she did as Second Lady when her husband was the Vice President to Barack Obama.

"You know, motherhood came to me in a way I never expected.

I fell in love with a man and two little boys standing in the wreckage of unthinkable loss." Joe and Jill Biden were married in 1977, a few years after Biden became a widower, when his first wife and their one-year-old daughter were killed in a car accident.

They had two young sons, Hunter and Beau.

At the 2020 Democratic Convention, Jill described the beginning of her marriage.

"Mourning a wife and mother-a daughter and sister.

I never imagined, at the age of 26, I would be asking myself: how do you make a broken family whole?

Still, Joe always told the boys, 'Mommy sent Jill to us,' - and how could I argue with her?" It took five proposals before she agreed to marry Biden.

They had their daughter Ashley in 1981.

But there were more tragedies to come for the family.

In May 2015, Biden's older son, Beau, died at 46 after battling brain cancer.

"It was totally shattering" Biden recalled in an interview with USA TODAY last year, saying "My life changed in an instant.

All during his illness, I truly believed that he was going to live, up until the moment that he closed his eyes, and I just never gave up hope." As First Lady, Biden plans to focus on education issues and 'Joining Forces,' an initiative, she and Michelle Obama launched in 2011 to help military families.

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