President Joe Biden has held many titles throughout his decades-long career in public service and politics. But there’s one name he undoubtedly prizes above all others: Dad. The 46th President of the United States, 81, has had four children, tragically losing two of them over the course of his life. President Biden has always been adamant about putting his family first and sharing so many of his personal triumphs and tragedies with the public.
Learn more about the 81-year-old’s family below.
“Six weeks after my election [to U.S. Senate], my whole world was altered forever. While I was in Washington hiring staff, I got a phone call. My wife and three children were Christmas shopping, a tractor trailer broadsided them and killed my wife and killed my daughter. And they weren’t sure that my sons would live,” President Biden recalled in a commencement speech at Yale University. Naomi was just 13 months old, while Neilia was roughly 30 years old at the time of their tragic deaths.
By 2003, Beau made the decision to enlist in the military. He was a part of the Delaware Army National Guard and by 2008, his unit was deployed to Iraq, around the same time as his father’s Vice Presidential Debate during the 2008 election cycle. Between January 2007 to January 2015, Beau served as the 44th Attorney General of Delaware. During his time in office, his paths often crossed with current Vice President Kamala Harris, who was then the 32nd Attorney General of California.
The Biden family was once again struck by tragedy, when in 2010 Beau suffered a small stroke, and in 2013 underwent extensive surgery to have a lesion removed from his brain. Beau underwent rounds of chemotherapy and surgery while battling brain cancer. But in January 2015, President Biden’s eldest son passed away at the age of 46.
