How old was Jill Biden in 1972
This fact-check may be outdated. Consider refreshing it to get the most current information.
Executive summary
Jill Biden was born June 3, 1951, which means she was 20 or 21 years old during calendar year 1972 (turning 21 on June 3, 1972) [1] [2]. Some later claims have suggested she met Joe Biden in 1972, but contemporary reporting and fact-checks say the couple met in 1975 when she was in her early 20s [3] [4].
1. Birthdate and simple arithmetic — how old was she in 1972
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden’s widely reported birthdate is June 3, 1951; that date appears across major biographies and official profiles [1] [2] [5]. Counting from that birthday, she was 20 years old for the first half of 1972 and turned 21 on June 3, 1972 [1] [2].
2. Why the year 1972 gets mentioned — deaths, politics and timelines
1972 is a prominent year in Joe Biden’s biography because his first wife Neilia and infant daughter Naomi died in a December 1972 car crash, and Biden won his first U.S. Senate campaign that year; those events mean the year is often invoked in retellings of how Biden’s life intersected with others’ (available sources do not mention a direct role for Jill Biden in those 1972 events) [6] [5]. Sources show Jill graduated with a B.A. in 1975 and met Joe Biden that same year, which helps explain why many timelines place their meeting later than 1972 [5] [4].
3. Conflicting claims and fact-checks — did she meet Biden in 1972?
Some claims — including statements by Jill’s first husband reported years later — have suggested she knew Joe Biden as early as 1972 [6]. News organizations and fact-checkers have examined those claims and concluded they are incorrect: the Associated Press and other reporting say Jill Biden was born in 1951 and met Joe Biden in 1975, when she was in her early 20s [3] [4]. The sources show the more authoritative, consistent narrative is that the couple met in 1975, not 1972 [3] [4].
4. What primary sources and biographers say about the timeline
Official and longstanding biographies — Britannica, Biography.com, the White House historical profile and the Biden Presidential Library — list Jill Biden’s birthdate as June 3, 1951 and describe her college graduation in 1975 and meeting Joe Biden that year [2] [1] [7] [5]. These institutional profiles present a consistent chronology: born 1951, college degree earned 1975, met Joe Biden in 1975 [2] [1] [5].
5. Why precision matters — political narratives and misinformation risks
The year someone met a public figure can be used to suggest impropriety or to shape partisan narratives. In this case, repeating the claim that Jill Biden met Joe Biden in 1972 implies she was a teenager connected to his family during a traumatic year; fact-checkers and primary biographies reject that implication, and the discrepancy has been flagged as false by the AP [3]. Readers should weigh later personal recollections against contemporaneous records (degrees, official bios) that anchor dates [5] [4].
6. Bottom line for readers who just want the answer
Given the documented June 3, 1951 birthdate, Jill Biden was 20 for part of 1972 and turned 21 on June 3, 1972 [1] [2]. Available sources show she did not meet Joe Biden until 1975, and fact-checking outlets flag claims of a 1972 meeting as false [3] [4].