When Joe Biden Revealed He Proposed To His Wife Jill Biden Five Times Before Getting A 'Yes'

President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden have been married for over 45 years, the couple first met in 1975 on a blind date. Together they share a daughter, Ashley. The Democratic leader hilariously recounted on The Drew Barrymore Show last year in December that he proposed to Jill five times before receiving a "yes" from her. "My brother set us up on a blind date, and when I went out with her the first time, I knew that this was the woman, I really did," the President revealed for the first time on live TV to Barrymore back then. "I had to ask her five times, and the fifth time, I was in South Africa, trying to see Nelson Mandela," Biden shared.

Biden continued with the anecdote:  "I came back, got off the plane in Philadelphia, drove straight to her apartment, knocked on the door and  she said, ‘Oh Joe, come on in.’ I said no. I said, ‘You got my Irish up.' And I said, 'I’m asking you one more time.' I said, 'You don’t have to say when, but if. If you say no, I understand, and that’s it. I looked at her and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ She goes, ‘OK.’ Swear to God."

Joe Biden was a single parent and had two sons when he proposed to Jill. His 1-year-old daughter Naomi, and his first wife Neilia Hunter Biden died in a car accident in 1972. The father of two boys recounted how his sons, Hunter and Beau Biden reacted to the situation: "I said, ‘What’s the matter, guys?’" Biden said. "Beau finally said, ‘Dad, we were talking. We think we should marry Jill.'"Biden disclosed that Jill developed a fondness for his boys and had served as a resolute support system for them following their mother's passing. 

"Later after it was all over, I call my sister, I said, 'What made her change her mind?'" Biden said about his fifth wedding proposal. "She told me Jill fell in love with the boys." Continuing to praise his wife Biden said: "Only twice in my life have I ever fallen in love, and both times I knew immediately," he said. "I'm not joking. I know that sounds bizarre.""I once asked her, when she finally agreed to marry me, 'How can you marry me knowing how much I loved my first wife?'" Biden said. "She said, 'If you love that deeply, you can love that way again.'" 

Speaking with Vogue in 2016 on her initial thoughts about her spouse and the reason it took her so long to say "yes" to his proposal of marriage, Jill said: “I said, ‘Not yet. Not yet. Not yet because by that time, of course, I had fallen in love with the boys, and I really felt that this marriage had to work. Because they had lost their mom, and I couldn’t have them lose another mother. So I had to be 100 percent sure.”