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No, Biden didn’t say he met Jill Biden when she was 12
If Your Time is short
- Joe Biden is nearly 10 years older than his wife, Jill Biden. He didn’t say she was 12 when he was 30.
- Biden said this of someone he recognized in the audience at a Democratic National Committee event.
Misinformation about how President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden became acquainted has long been social media fodder. But a recent remark by the president is putting a new spin on the rumors.
"She was 12, I was 30," read a quote that appeared in an Instagram post that showed an old image of Jill Biden sitting on Joe Biden’s lap.
The Oct. 2 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 Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The photo has been misused before. In 2021, it was shared with the description that "she was 15" and "he was in his 30s when she used to be the family babysitter."
Joe Biden, who was born in November 1942, is nearly 10 years older than Jill Biden, who was born in June 1951. According to the White House website and news reports, they met in 1975 and went on their first date that March, when she would have been 23 years old. She wasn’t the family babysitter.
Featured Fact-check
On Sept. 23, Joe Biden was giving a speech at a Democratic National Committee event in Washington, D.C., when he appeared to recognize someone in the audience and pointed at the person.
"You got to say ‘hi’ to me. We go back a long way," he said. "She was 12, and I was 30. But anyway, this woman helped me get an awful lot done."
Some social media posts wrongly claimed that this amounted to Biden admitting he had an inappropriate relationship with a minor. That’s wrong, and so is the claim that he said his wife was 12 when he was 30.
We rate this post False.
Our Sources
Instagram post, Oct. 2, 2022
PolitiFact, No, Jill Biden wasn’t a teenage babysitter for Joe Biden’s family, Feb. 22, 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
PolitiFact, No, Biden did not admit he had an inappropriate relationship with a minor, Sept. 30, 2022
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No, Biden didn’t say he met Jill Biden when she was 12
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