Claims about how former President Joe Biden’s relationship with his wife, Jill Biden, began are circulating again following criminal charges against her first husband, Bill Stevenson.
Stevenson, who was married to Jill Biden from 1970 to 1975, has been accused of killing his current wife, Linda Stevenson, during what authorities described as a domestic dispute.
Police in New Castle County, Delaware, responded to the Stevensons’ home in late December, where Linda Stevenson was found unresponsive in the living room. Despite efforts to save her, she was pronounced dead at the scene. More than a month later, Stevenson was indicted on a charge of first-degree murder and taken into custody.
A campaign ad reignites scrutiny
Renewed attention to the case has also revived long-running claims made by Stevenson about when Jill Biden first met Joe Biden.
In a 2020 presidential campaign advertisement, Jill Biden said she met Joe Biden two years after he lost his first wife, Neilia, and daughter, Naomi, in a 1972 car accident.
“My name is Jill Biden, and I want to tell you about my husband Joe. I first met Joe two years after a car accident that injured his sons and killed his wife and his baby daughter. His life had been shattered,” she said in the ad.
Joe Biden has also publicly stated that he met Jill in March 1975. According to his account, he noticed her photo in an advertisement for a local park and later obtained her phone number through his brother, Frank, who knew her.
“My brother said, ‘There’s this woman — you’ll really like her, Joe,’” Biden recalled. “So I gave her a call, and she had a date that night.”
Biden has said he persuaded her to cancel that date, a version Jill Biden has confirmed. She recalled calling the other man and explaining she had a friend visiting from out of town before going out with Joe Biden instead.
Stevenson disputes the timeline
Stevenson has long rejected that version of events, arguing that Jill Biden and Joe Biden met before the 1972 car accident that killed Biden’s first wife and daughter.
According to Stevenson, the two crossed paths during Joe Biden’s 1972 Senate campaign and were involved while Stevenson and Jill Biden were still married. He has claimed this alleged relationship contributed to the collapse of their marriage.
At the time of the accident, Jill and Bill Stevenson had been married for nearly three years and were living in Newark, Delaware. Stevenson owned the Stone Balloon, a popular bar and music venue near the University of Delaware, where Jill Biden was completing her degree.
By 1974, the marriage had deteriorated, and the couple separated. During their divorce proceedings, Jill Biden unsuccessfully sought partial ownership of the Stone Balloon. The divorce was finalized in May 1975, two months after Joe and Jill Biden say they went on their first date.
Stevenson’s public claims
In a previous interview with local outlet WDEL, Stevenson said the Bidens’ account of how they met was untrue.
“I said, ‘Look, the Bidens made up this dramatic story that they met, he saw a picture of her,’ and I told him, I said, ‘That was so untrue,’” Stevenson said.
He claimed that Joe Biden and Jill Biden appeared together at multiple fundraising events at the Stone Balloon during the 1972 Senate campaign.
“There’s probably 500 people in Delaware that saw Joe Biden and Jill at three major fundraising events at the Stone Balloon in 1972, after the Stone Balloon opened in February,” he said.
Stevenson added that he did not want to damage Jill Biden’s public standing but maintained his version of events.
“I would say to Jill, ‘Listen, you know how I feel about this. You had an affair. You worked on the campaign,’” he said, also criticizing her later descriptions of how she and Joe Biden met.
The Bidens respond
The Bidens have repeatedly denied Stevenson’s allegations.
A spokesperson for the couple dismissed his claims, calling them false and suggesting they were intended to promote a book.
“These claims are fictitious, seemingly to sell and promote a book. The relationship of Joe and Jill Biden is well documented,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The spokesperson added that Jill Biden separated from her first husband in the fall of 1974 and moved out of their marital home at that time.
“Joe and Jill Biden had their first date in March of 1975, and they married in June of 1977,” the statement concluded.
