When did Jill Biden separate from her first husband
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Executive summary
Jill Biden separated from her first husband, Bill Stevenson, in the fall of 1974, moving out of their marital home; their divorce was finalized the following year, in 1975 (often reported as May 1975) [1] [2] [3]. Reporting about the timeline has been the subject of dispute, with Stevenson offering a different chronology and Biden’s spokespeople and biographers presenting the fall 1974 separation followed by the 1975 divorce [4] [5] [1].
1. The commonly reported timeline: separation in fall 1974, divorce in 1975
Biographical summaries and contemporary reporting consistently state that Jill Biden and Bill Stevenson separated irreconcilably in the fall of 1974, with Jill moving out of the marital home, and that the legal divorce followed in 1975 — a timeline repeated in encyclopedia entries and recent news accounts [1] [2] [6].
2. Where the “fall 1974” detail comes from and how it’s repeated
The phrase “separated from her first husband irreconcilably in the fall of 1974” appears in Jill Biden’s biographical entries and has been cited by multiple outlets summarizing her pre–Joe Biden life; those same sources connect the separation to a 1975 divorce and to her meeting Joe Biden in early 1975 and marrying him in 1977 [1] [6] [7].
3. The divorce date: reported as 1975 (often May 1975)
Several outlets state that the divorce was finalized in 1975, with some specifying May 1975 as the month the legal dissolution occurred; that sits consistently with the reporting that the separation preceded the formal divorce by roughly a year [3] [7] [2].
4. Competing accounts and motive scrutiny: the ex-husband’s claims
Bill Stevenson has publicly disputed parts of the standard timeline and alleged that his ex-wife’s relationship with Joe Biden overlapped with their marriage, a claim Jill Biden and her representatives have denied and characterized as fictitious or self-serving — reporting that highlights both the factual timeline (separation in 1974, divorce in 1975) and the existence of enduring disagreement about what happened before and during the separation [4] [5] [7].
5. How later news coverage has revived the story and the potential for bias
Recent stories about Bill Stevenson — tied to unrelated developments such as the death of his later wife — have prompted renewed retellings of the 1970–1975 marriage; some outlets reprint the standard timeline, while others amplify Stevenson’s contested version, illustrating how contemporary news hooks can resurrect and sometimes skew archival personal histories for clicks or political drama [8] [9] [2].
6. What can be confidently asserted and what remains contested
Based on the available reporting and biographical records, it can be confidently stated that Jill Biden and Bill Stevenson separated in the fall of 1974 and divorced in 1975 (commonly cited as May 1975); assertions about affairs or exact interpersonal dynamics during the separation are contested between Stevenson’s accounts and Biden’s denials, and those contested claims are not settled by the sources reviewed here [1] [3] [4].