Joe Biden says ‘good sex’ key to long lasting marriage, new book about wife Jill claims

President ‘tamped down on his public bedroom declarations’ ahead of winning the presidency, book says

Joe Biden has joked to aides that the key to a long and lasting marriage is "good sex," according to a new book about First Lady Jill Biden.

Author Katie Rogers, a New York Times White House correspondent, writes: "He has joked to aides that ‘good sex’ is the key to a lasting and happy marriage, much to his wife’s chagrin.”

American Woman - The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden, which is published this week, puts the spotlight on the Biden's near five-decade relationship.

Ms Rogers notes an incident in 2004, when Biden opted against running for president. It was a decision made clear to aides when Jill Biden entered the room wearing a halter top with the word "NO" scrawled on her stomach. The author added that Mr Biden told a group of supporters in 2006 that he still had little interest in running for president as he would at home making love to my wife while my children are asleep".

The comment drew little response from a spokesperson at the time who said then-Senator Biden was "frankly totally in love with his wife," Ms Rogers writes. The author adds that "Joe may have tamped down on his public bedroom declarations [in] winning the presidency" before writing of the remark about "good sex".

In 2020, while running for the presidency, Mr Biden made a risque joke about sleeping with his wife, on Jimmy Kimmel Live. After Mr Biden saw that Mr Kimmel was wearing a New York Mets baseball team branded hat, he put on a Philadelphia Phillies one. “This is not the way to win voters, Mr Vice President,” the host joked. “But it’s the way to be able to sleep with my wife,” Mr Biden replied. “She’s a Philly girl. If I weren’t into the Phillies I’d be out of luck, man.”

"One thing in my life has stayed the same: Joe and I have always had each other," Jill Biden wrote in her memoir Where the Light Enters.

Ms Rogers book also describes the anguish Joe Biden experienced when his first wife, Neilia, died in a 1972 car crash along with their daughter Naomi.

He and Jill married in 1977, but it took five proposals from Biden to get Jill to agree. "I've been as patient as I know how to be, but this has got my Irish up. Either you decide to marry me or that's it - I'm out. I'm not asking again," Biden said on the fifth try, Rogers writes.