As First Lady, an educator, a mother, and a grandmother, Jill Biden has been juggling a number of duties over the past few years while making it look easy. Perhaps it’s due to her extensive experience.
Since Biden has been married to the president for almost 50 years, she has unavoidably become involved in politics and all that goes along with being a politician’s spouse. Biden’s upbringing prepared her for all of these issues, but her adult life got off to a terrible start.
Bill Stevenson, Jill’s first husband, was a classmate of hers at the same university. They first ran into each other while lying on the beach in Ocean City, New Jersey. Jill was certain she was getting married six months later when she walked down the aisle. Stevenson was a few years older than she was at the time, but she was only 18 and the future seemed bright. At least, until it didn’t.
Five years later, the couple got divorced, leaving Jill with a future that was far from what she had imagined. Then she met Joe, and a romantic tale that is still going on today was born.
The fact that Jill eventually found the love of her life gives many people hope that, just maybe, happy endings can exist; you just have to weather some storms first. For Jill, getting to the point in her life where she is happily married (and now the First Lady) wasn’t easy.
During Joe Biden’s bid for the presidency in 2020, Bill Stevenson started talking to various media outlets and asserting that Jill Biden had an extramarital affair with Joe Biden just before their marriage broke up. There is something because he also admitted to Inside Edition at the time that he would vote for Donald Trump.
Stevenson claims that Jill first met Joe in 1972 while he was running for senator, and that their friendship developed into an affair in 1974. Stevenson claimed that several incidents showed that Joe and Jill were having an affair behind his back.
In the beginning, one of Jill’s close friends reportedly told him that she was worried about Joe and Jill’s relationship, and later, Jill decided not to go see Bruce Springsteen with Stevenson in favor of watching Joe’s kids. But it was confirmed for Stevenson when a different friend told him he had seen Joe and Jill traveling together.
For some reason Stevenson saw this as proof positive that they were having a relationship. According to him, when he asked Jill about the outing with Joe, “she didn’t say anything,” instead just calmly staring at him, according to Inside Edition.
“You must leave.
You need to find housing,'” recalled Stevenson.
The story Jill tells is different, and according to her spokesperson, Stevenson’s claims are at best fictitious.
If Bill Stevenson had not confronted Jill Biden about the relationship he suspected she had with Joe Biden many years prior, one has to wonder what might have transpired.
These are unanswerable questions, but Stevenson told the Daily Mail that he wasn’t surprised Jill caught Joe’s attention.
“Jill instantly captures the hearts of everyone she meets.
It’s hard not to,” Stevenson acknowledged.
Stevenson confronted Jill about the affair and asked her to leave their home.
As the couple’s marriage was failing, Jill’s family allegedly tried to intervene to save the union.
Her father begged me to take her back after learning what was going on. I declined his request to give her another chance, Stevenson said.
Like other divorces, this one became a little messy. The Stone Balloon, Steven’s music venue, was disputed in the settlement. He was adamant about not giving Jill a share, which led to some friction and disputes that were eventually resolved after the judge ruled in Stevenson’s favor.
However, after the divorce, Stevenson found himself in legal trouble and was accused of numerous frauds. This time, the judge did not rule in Stevenson’s favor. It’s not clear if their shady business practices had an adverse effect on his and Jill’s marriage.
At the age of 24, Jill Biden was heartbroken, divorced, single, and financially precarious. Only when she was no longer receiving it did Jill realize how much she depended on her ex-husband’s income. She was unemployed and had limited resources. She still had university coursework to complete and was homeless.
She vowed she would never again rely on anyone and said she never expected to be in such dire financial straits. “I knew I would never, ever put myself in that position — where I didn’t feel like I had the finances to be on my own, and I had to get the money through a divorce settlement,” she said.
In this trying time, Jill was determined not to opt for the simple solution. Although she had a broken heart, she could have moved in with her parents but she knew she had to go it alone this time.
When the marriage broke up, she said, “I fell hard because of that.
I believed so much in the institution of marriage. ”.
But she picked herself up, eventually paid her rent, and earned an honors degree from the university. Despite the challenges, it was during this period that she came to terms with her identity and her goals in life.
After a difficult divorce, Jill Biden was not looking forward to getting married again. Although Bill Stevenson was the man she thought she would be with forever, their marriage only lasted five years. The First Lady writes in her memoir, “Where the Light Enters,” about her whirlwind romance with Stevenson; they had only been dating for a year when they got married, and Jill now has a different perspective.
As she continued, “There was a time when I truly believed we were destined for each other.
Looking back, it may seem like that relationship was a youthful mistake.
”.
It makes sense that Jill was reluctant to start a new relationship. She and Joe Biden met on a blind date, and he fell in love right away. On “The Drew Barrymore Show,” Joe said, “I knew this was the woman when I went out with her for the first time. Joe had to ask Jill to marry him five times before she finally said yes because she was very cautious.
In a later interview with Vogue, Jill stated that she wished to ensure the continuation of this union, particularly in light of the fact that Joe’s children were involved and had already lost their mother in a car accident. She said to the publication, “I couldn’t have them lose another mother.”. Fortunately, Joe was a patient man, and Jill finally consented when he made it clear that the fifth proposal would be his last.
Even though Jill Biden now acknowledges that going through a divorce was one of the hardest things she has ever had to do, it undoubtedly played a big part in defining her life. The First Lady has become very adept at finding the bright side in grim circumstances, even though she has been open about the struggles she faced as a result of her divorce at such a young age.
Jill admitted that her split from Bill Stevenson was ultimately for the best while appearing on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”. She is obviously content with the life she and Joe have built, and the knowledge she has gained has motivated her to move forward.
I wouldn’t have the lovely family I have now if I hadn’t gotten divorced, said Clarkson. “You know, I look back on it now, and I think, you know, if I hadn’t gotten divorced, you know, I wouldn’t have met Joe.”. ”.
