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No, Jill Biden wasn’t a teenage babysitter for Joe Biden’s family
If Your Time is short
- According to news reports and their own accounts, Jill and Joe Biden started dating in March 1975, when she was 23.
Before she spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, Jill Biden shared an old photo of herself sitting on the lap of President Joe Biden.
"How did you get this number?" Biden tweeted. "Those were the first words I spoke to Joe when he called me out of the blue on a Saturday in 1975."
But that image has been repurposed and shared on social media with an inaccurate caption.
"Joe & Jill Biden," it says. "She was 15 he was in his 30’s she used to be the family babysitter. Fact-check that."
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
Jill Biden was born in June 1951, making her nearly 10 years younger than Joe Biden, who was born in November 1942.
Featured Fact-check
According to the White House website and news reports, Jill Biden met then-Sen. Joe Biden in 1975 and they went on their first date in March, when she would have been 23 years old. Jill told Vogue she was a senior in college at the time.
The New York Times reported in 2008 that Joe Biden said he first saw pictures of Jill Biden — then Jill Jacobs — that month in an advertisement for a local park in Delaware.
He got her number from his brother that night. "I was really charmed by him," Jill BIden said in a 2012 CNN interview. She said she had met Biden once before "but it was in a crowd and it was at a fundraiser."
Both Jill Biden and Joe Biden had previously been married to other people. Jill Biden married Bill Stevenson the year after she graduated high school. Stevenson has alleged he introduced Jill Biden to Joe Biden in 1972 and that she started seeing Joe Biden in 1974. According to this timeline, Jill Biden would have been at least 20 when she met Joe Biden.
However, Jill Biden has denied Stevenson’s claim, saying she "separated from her first husband irreconcilably in the fall of 1974 and moved out of their marital home" before her first date with Joe Biden in March 1975.
Joe Biden’s first wife, Neilia, and their daughter, Naomi, died in a car accident in 1972. In his memoir, "Promises to Keep," Joe Biden said that he didn’t want to introduce Jill Biden to his surviving sons right away but that they ultimately encouraged their dad to marry her. They wed in 1977.
We rate this post False.
Our Sources
Facebook post, Feb. 21, 2021
Jill Biden tweet, Aug. 18, 2020
Britannica, Jill Biden, visited Feb. 22, 2021
Britannica, Joe Biden, visited Feb. 22, 2021
The White House, Dr. Jill Biden, visited Feb. 22, 2021
The New York Times, Jill Biden heads toward life in the spotlight, Aug. 24, 2008
CNN, Jill Biden on her first date with Joe, Jan. 23, 2012
Vogue, Joe and Jill Biden’s love story will pull at your heartstrings, Nov. 17, 2016
The Washington Post, From ‘Jill’ to ‘Mom’ — inside Jill Biden’s relationship with Beau and Hunter, June 4, 2014
O, A look at Dr. Jill Biden and President Joe Biden’s enduring love story, Feb. 3, 2021
Inside Edition, Jill Biden denies ex-husband’s claim she had affair with Joe Biden before they split, Sept. 22, 2020
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No, Jill Biden wasn’t a teenage babysitter for Joe Biden’s family
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