President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden Just Gave Their First White House Interview

President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden are the first couple, but they’re also just two people who fell in love and are doing what it takes to make their relationship work. President Biden tragically lost his first wife, Neilia Hunter, and daughter, Naomi, in a car crash in 1972. Five years later, he married Dr. Biden, who he says was the “glue” that held their family together. The Bidens are still very much in love after 43 years of marriage.

“She has a backbone like a ramrod,” President Biden reveals about his wife in an interview with People, the couple’s first White House interview. “Everybody says marriage is 50/50. Well, sometimes you have to be 70/30. Thank God that when I’m really down, she steps in, and when she’s really down, I’m able to step in. We’ve been really supportive of one another.”

He adds, “I’ve read all that data as well about families under pressure, and that’s why I’m glad she kept her profession. It’s really important that she’s an educator, although she took off two years when we first got married because the boys were little. It’s important that she has the things that she cares a great deal about, her independence. And yet we share each other’s dreams.”

Dr. Biden is continuing her career as an educator, despite being the new first lady, which is not the norm. “I teach writing,” she said, adding that she’ll serve as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College. She explains, “I taught all eight years that I was second lady. That’s my passion, that’s my life.”

President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden are dedicated to addressing the country’s problems, notably the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment, and racial inequality. President Biden says by 2022, he hopes Americans “are back to a degree of optimism.” Read their full interview here.