Beau Biden Age, Death, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Beau Biden

• When he was four years old, he was in a car accident with his brother Hunter, his mother Neilia, and his sister Naomi while going shopping during the Christmas vacation in 1972. While Neilia and Naomi passed away in the accident, he and his brother were severely wounded.

• Beau received severe fractures to his skull while Hunter had broken bones.
  

  Beau Biden (left) with Naomi and Hunter Biden during their childhood

• After Neilia passed away, Joe decided not to get married to look after his son and his political career. As per sources, Hunter and Beau often talked to Joe about getting married by asking “when were ‘we’ going to get married.”

• He was released from the hospital two weeks after Joe entered the Senate for the first time.

• After completing his initial schooling at a private school in the US, Beau enrolled at the Archmere Academy, Delaware, where Joe Biden had studied. Since he excelled in his studies there, he became a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity.
  

  Joe Biden with his sons when they both were at the Archmere Academy

• After completing his formal law studies, he started working for the renowned American advocate Steven McAuliffe as a clerk at the United States District Court of New Hampshire.
  

  A photo of Beau Biden and Joe Biden at New Hampshire City

• Beau Biden worked with Steven till 1995, who then recommended him to the United States Department of Justice, Philadelphia, where he initially held the post of Counsel to the Office of Policy Development.

• After some time, he passed several departmental exams as a result of which he was appointed as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He worked there till 2004.

• During the 1998-1999 Kosovo War, Beau Biden’s name was recommended by the United States Attorney’s Office to lead a team of American lawyers under the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to train lawyers from Kosovo to represent national cases in international European courts and make the local judicial system more efficient.

• In 2001, after returning from Kosovo, Beau Biden was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS), a form of arthritis.

• In 2003, he joined the Delaware National Guard, a part of the US Army’s National Guards Corps, as an officer. He was given a direct post as an officer as he had a degree in law.
  

  A photo of Beau Biden in the US Army uniform

• In 2004, he joined the law firm Bifferato, Gentilotti, Biden & Balick as a partner; he worked there for two years.

• Beau officially declared his intentions to run as the Attorney General of Delaware in 2006. He received support from Joe and the Democratic Party.
  

  Joe Biden introducing Beau Biden as one of the contestants of the 2006 Delaware Attorney General elections

• His campaign for the post of AG is considered to be one of the most successful campaigns in the history of the US. He received more than 50 per cent of the votes, and hence, became the AG in the same year.
  

  Beau Biden in the office of the Attorney General of Delaware

• Soon after entering the office, Beau Biden established a child predator unit to tackle the growing instances of paedophilia in the state of Delaware.

• He later stood against the demand of the Democratic Party to remove the provision of handing the death penalty to a convicted person. This led to him falling out of favour with several senior party members.

• He also made a name for implementing laws that sought strict punishment on mortgage lenders (also known as loan sharks) over foreclosure abuses and also sought the implementation of tougher bail restrictions for criminal defendants.

• In 2008, Beau made a political public appearance for the first time when he introduced Joe Biden at the opening event of the Democratic National Convention following Joe’s nomination as the Vice President by the Democratic Party.

• In the same year, he was sent to Iraq, where he assisted the US Army in conducting counter-insurgency operations following the fall of Saddam Hussain’s regime.
  

  Beau Biden as a Captain in Iraq

• In October 2008, he was again tasked to go to Iraq to conduct trials of Iraqi war criminals. For this, he was sent to a pre-deployment” training at the Texas-based Fort Bliss. As per Joe Biden, he did not want Beau to go to Iraq due to the conflict there. He talked about it and said,
  

  I don’t want him going. But I tell you what, I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years, and so how we leave makes a big difference.”

• In the same year, he looked into the case of Robert H. Richards IV on the charges of sexually abusing his daughter. He, however, received criticism after his office entered a plea on behalf of Richards to reduce the prison sentence. Earlier, his office had charged Richards on two counts of second-degree rape, charges punishable by a minimum of 20 years in prison.

• Biden later published a journal in which he said that there were very less pieces of evidence against Richards, and hence, the case was “not strong.”

• In January 2009, Beau was temporarily relieved from his military duty to allow him to attend Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony in Washington, D.C.
  

  Beau Biden at Joe Biden’s swearing-in ceremony as the Vice President of the United States

• While serving in Iraq, many opponents of his called for his resignation as the AG of Delaware. To address the issue, Beau released a statement in which he stated that he would simultaneously work as the AG by working with the senior staff members of his office.

• As per sources, Beau used to make his junior officers work on the issues of the AG as he wanted to focus more on his work in Iraq.

• Even though Iraq had little to no internet connectivity, Beau liked to keep information on all the political happenings in the US. For this, he requested the US Army’s higher command for a Blackberry cell phone with an in-built internet set.

• The soldiers under his command came to respect him for his leadership qualities. They not only sought his assistance whenever the battalion needed legal advice but also turned to him for help with personal legal issues they faced back home.

• As an Attorney of Delaware, he was criticised for not taking up the case of mass shootings which took place in different cities in Delaware to impose stricter gun laws. He also received backlash for the manner in which he handled the case of Earl Bradley, a paediatrician who sexually assaulted many patients for more than a decade before being taken into custody in December 2009.

• In 2010, Beau decided to not contest the Federal elections after his father, Joe, left the Senate after becoming the Vice President of the United States of America. As per sources, Beau believed that his image after the mishandling of the Earl Bradley case had deteriorated, and he stood no chance of winning the elections.

• In the same year, Beau Biden ran for the second term as the Attorney General. He was elected unopposed as the Republican Party decided to withdraw their candidate.

• As an AG, he laid emphasis on undertaking efforts to tackle sex offenders, internet predators, senior abuse, and domestic abuse.

• He was later rushed to a hospital in Delaware after complaining of partial paralysis and severe headache.

• In November 2011, Beau was promoted to the rank of a “field grade” Major in the US Army, a temporary rank given to an officer. He became one of the few officers in the history of the US to be promoted to the rank in such a short time.

• In 2013, he was diagnosed with cancer after he was admitted to the Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive type of brain cancer. He was taken to the hospital after complaining of weakness and disorientation.

• According to Joe Biden, Beau got cancer during his tenure in Iraq after inhaling toxic gasses emitting out of the military burn pits. The US military used these pits to dispose of outdated clothing and equipment to prevent their use by enemies.

• Thereafter, Biden underwent chemotherapy in Delaware and remained out of public view for some time. However, he was rushed to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, after the brain cancer lapsed.

• In 2014, after his second tenure as the AG of Delaware ended, he announced his decision to not run for the third time. He, however, expressed his desire to contest for the post of the Governor of Delaware.

• He, however, later decided to not run for the elections of the governor as his health began to decline rapidly.

• On 6 June 2015, his funeral service was held at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware, which was attended by President Barack Obama, his wife, and other well-known personalities.
  

  Soldiers carrying the casket of Beau Biden at his funeral service attended by the Biden family

• The US Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno awarded the Legion of Merit to Beau at his funeral. Beau became one of the few soldiers awarded a medal for their service, even years after retiring from the military and passing away.

• At his funeral, Chris Martin, leader of the famous British band Coldplay, performed Til Kingdom Come, one of their most popular albums which was liked by Beau Biden as well.

• According to sources, before passing away, Beau had expressed his desire to be buried next to the gravestone of his deceased grandparents, mother, and sister.
  

  A photo of the gravestone of Beau Biden

• In 2016, the US government passed the 21st Century Cures Act under which they implemented the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot initiative.

• In 2017, Joe Biden published a book titled Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose. The book talks about Beau’s struggle with brain cancer.
  

  Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose’s cover page

• In 2020, his father, Joe, revealed that he had planned on making Beau a presidential candidate of the Democratic Party had he survived.

• Hunter, his younger brother, wrote a book in 2021 in which he claimed that the passing of Beau impacted his emotional state as a result of which his drug and alcohol addiction began.

• According to sources, Hunter Biden entered into a relationship with Beau’s wife after he passed away. They, however, ended their relationship in 2019.

• Hunter has named one of his children after Beau.

• In 2021, the American pop/rock band New Radicals reunited after decades apart to honour Beau Biden. Although the band had previously declined offers from event organizers to perform at concerts, they agreed to play in his memory, as he was a fan of their music. The band played their 1998 hit song “You Get What You Give.” The band talked about it, in an interview, and said,
  

  We pledged if Joe [Biden] won, we’d get together and play our little song both in memory and in honor of our new president’s patriot son Beau and also with the prayer of Joe being able to bring our country together again with compassion, honesty and justice for a change.”

• In 2022, the Joe Biden administration passed the Honoring Our Pact Act, which provided medical coverage to former US military personnel who suffered from diseases caused by pit burning.

• Joe later revealed that the bill was implemented to honour Beau.

• After his death, the State of Delaware’s Criminal Justice Council named an award, Joseph R. “Beau” Biden III Outstanding Criminal Justice Program Award, after him.

• Thereafter, the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children was established in the state of Delaware.
  

  Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children logo

• Like Joe, Beau was an avid animal lover and owned several pets.

• His wife, Hallie Olivere, got married for the second time in 2024.