Jill Biden has mocked her husband’s straight-laced dress sense.
The First Lady, 72, who married now-US President Joe Biden, 80, in 1977, said when she saw him dressed in a suit on their first night out in 1975 – when she was obsessed with hippie-style clothes – she thanked God she would only have to go on “one date” with him.
She said at a fund-raiser for her husband at the Lotos Club on New York’s Upper East Side: “It was the ’70s… it was Vietnam, love beads, equal rights. I wore my hair down to the middle of my waist, and so did most of the men I dated.
“Remember what you were wearing then? Clogs, bell-bottoms, tie-dyes.
“(Then) one day, I was asked out on a date from out of the blue, and that evening a handsome young senator showed up at my door.
“I took one look at his perfect suit and his leather loafers and I thought, ‘Thank God it’s only one date!’”
But Jill added: “Well, one date eventually turned into a marriage proposal. And OK, if I am being completely honest, it was five proposals, because this was not part of my plan.”
She also recalled of her hesitation at the time: “More than that, it wasn’t just my heart that was on the line… as many of you know, years before, Joe’s wife, Neilia, and his baby daughter were killed in a car accident.”
Joe was widowed in 1972, and was left a single dad to sons Beau and Hunter Biden.
Jill said: “After all that his two sons, Beau and Hunter, had lost, I knew that if I said yes to Joe, it had to be forever.
“So eventually I realised that my love for Joe and the boys outweighed any fears I had, and I said yes. And here we are 46 years later.”
