President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to have themselves aromantic little Christmas.
The couple appeared on Mondays Drew Barrymore Show in what was their firstjoint interview on daytime TV. They talked about his sweet Christmas gifttradition — and the enduring love between them after 45 years of marriage.
“One thing that Joe gives me every year is a poem,” the English and writingprofessor, 71, told Barrymore. “He has a book that he bought for me and everyyear he writes a poem.”
Barrymore asked if the president, 80, personally writes it, and he replied,”Of course I do. There’s a lot to write about,” grabbing his wife’s hand.However, he quipped that the poem “doesn’t quite do it,” as he buys her gifts,as well. She said that he once got her a “a full rose garden” for one of herbirthdays, adding, “He pretty much gets it right.”
Of not getting a perfect score when it comes to gift giving, he said, “Oh,man. Everybody knows I love her more than she loves me.”
The couple traveled back in time, counting how they met. He was a widowerafter his first wife, Neilia, and daughter, Naomi, died in the 1972 car crashthat his young sons, Beau and Hunter, survived. Meanwhile, Jill had divorcedher first husband. The future POTUS and FLOTUS were set up on a blind date byJoe’s youngest brother in 1975 — and he proposed five times before she agreedto marry him, which she did in 1977.
Drew Barrymore interviewed president Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden forthe Dec. 19 episode of her talk show. (Photo: The Drew Barrymore Show /AshBean)
“When I went out with her the first time, I knew this was the woman. I reallydid,” he said. “Only twice in my life have I ever fallen in love. Both times Iknew immediately. I’m not joking.”
He said Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, and Hunter were instrumentalin Jill saying yes to the Delaware Senator. “My boys—our boys—were young[about 6 and 7] and they came in and said … ‘Dad, we were talking. We think weshould marry Jill.’ Swear to god,” Joe recalled.
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After striking out four times, the winning proposal took place after hereturned from trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa.
“I came back, got off the plane in Philadelphia, drove straight to herapartment, knocked on the door,” he remembered. “[She] said, ‘Oh, Joe, come onin.’ I said, ‘No … You got my Irish up …I’m asking you one more time … Youdon’t have to say when, but if you say no, I understand, and that’s it.’ Ilooked at her and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ She goes [after taking a minute],”OK.” Swear to God.”
Joe said he learned from his sister, who was friends with Jill, what made Jillchange her mind. “‘She told me she fell in love with the boys,'” he recalledhis sibling saying.
Jill said her hesitancy was because, “I had to make absolutely sure that thismarriage was going to work because [the brothers] had lost their mother andthey had lost their sister. I knew that it had to work because they had lostso much. They had to feel secure that this marriage would work.”
The first lady gave Barrymore a tour of the White House holiday decorations.(Photo: The Drew Barrymore Show /Ash Bean)
Joe said that prior to marrying Jill, he asked her how she could marry himknowing how much he had loved his first wife. “She said, ‘Because you lovedthat deeply, you can love that way again,'” he recalled. “I’ll never forgetit.”
Joe said the June 1977 wedding, at the United Nations Chapel in NYC, involvedthe two boys.
“When we were sitting there and [the officiant] said, ‘Who takes this woman?’Both the boys got up and walked to the altar spontaneously,” Joe said. “Itwasn’t planned … We both we surprised and pleased.”
She added, “We got married as a family.”
They all spent the wedding night together too — the couple took the boys tosee Annie.
“She’s also my best friend,” he added. “For real. You can tell her anything.She’s got a backbone like a ramrod. She does. You don’t want to mess with mewith this woman [by my side].”
Later, the pair participated in the show’s “The Final 5” segment, which sawJill answer questions and Joe have to guess her responses. Some things welearned: Her favorite place in the White House is the Truman Balcony. A snackshe likes to sneak into the White House kitchen is French fries — though heguessed wine and stuck by his answer. (“I think you consider wine a snack,too,” he said to the first lady.) Jill said her husband’s most annoying habitis leaving his reading light on at night.
Keeping it light, it ended with who said “I love you” first in theirrelationship — and that was Joe, of course.
“Oh, that’s easy — me,” he said. “I said it first, second, third, fourth,fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth.”