And they weren’t sure that my sons would live. My wife and three children were Christmas shopping, a tractor trailer broadsided them and killed my wife and killed my daughter. “While I was in Washington hiring staff, I got a phone call. “Six weeks after my election, my whole world was altered forever,” he said. Speaking about the tragedy in a speech at Yale in 2015, Biden described the moment he took that call. Hunter and Beau, who were four and three years old, were in critical condition. While out Christmas shopping, Biden received a phone call telling him Neilia and Naomi - who was just 13 months old - had been killed in a car accident.
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Just weeks after he was elected, while Biden was in Washington DC interviewing people to work in his new office, he received a phone call that would change his life forever. How did Joe Biden’s wife Neilia and daughter Naomi die? They succeeded and, in November that year Biden, then 30, won the seat from Republican incumbent J Caleb Boggs. In 1972, Biden ran for a Delaware seat in the US senate, with his wife playing a key role in his campaign. The couple went on to have three children - sons Beau and Hunter and daughter Naomi, who was nicknamed Amy.
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Who was Joe Biden’s first wife?īiden met Neilia Hunter in 1963 on the beach in Nassau during spring break, when she was a sophomore at Syracuse University and he was a junior at the University of Delaware.įollowing his degree, Biden moved to Syracuse to attend law school and the couple married in 1966 while he was still studying there.Īfter his graduation, they moved to Wilmington in Delaware where he practised law and won a seat on New Castle County Council in 1970.īiden' first wife Neilia and their daughter Naomi are buried alongside his oldest son Beau Biden, who died of cancer in 2015, at a cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware. That moment in 1972 would not only change the presidential hopeful’s personal life, but would influence the way he conducts himself on the public stage. , and their 1-year-old daughter Naomi Biden. The 77-year-old was just embarking on his journey in politics when his life was changed irreparably by the death of his wife and daughter. In the past, President Biden has spoken about the 1972 car accident that killed his first wife, Neilia Hunter. (Getty)įor every politician, events of their past influence their political career and the person they are.īut for Joe Biden, the story is particularly poignant. I made it through, with a lot of support, and reconstructed my life and my family.Tragedy in the early stages of Joe Biden's career has influenced the way he conducts himself. In his 2017 book, Promise Me, Dad, he wrote: “The pain seemed unbearable in the beginning, and it took me a long time to heal, but I did survive the punishing ordeal.
He went on to explain how he was in Washington hiring staff for his new Senate role when he found out his wife and daughter had died. What has Joe Biden said about her death?Īt a 2015 commencement speech Mr Biden told students at Yale University: “Six weeks after my election, my whole world was altered forever.” Mr Biden was sworn into the Senate in the hospital where they were recovering. Ms Hunter and the children were all taken to Wilmington General Hospital, but she and her daughter Naomi, who was just one year old, died upon arrival.īoth of the boys sustained serious injuries, but survived. She accidentally drove into the path of a tractor trailer, which struck the car. Joe Bidens first wife, Neilia Hunter, tragically died in a car accident in 1972 How did Neilia and Naomi Biden die In 1972, Joe Biden had just been elected as senator of Delaware when his wife, Neilia Hunter decided to take their three children to get a Christmas tree. On 18 December 1972, a month after Mr Biden won the senate race, Ms Hunter was driving to collect a Christmas tree, along with their three children, in Hockessin, Delaware, near their home. Joe Biden married his second wife, Jill, in 1977 (Photo: AP) Neilia Hunter’s death