US President Joe Biden believes that the secret to a long and lasting marriage is good sex, according to a new book.
In the 276-page book; “American Woman – The Transformation of the Modern First Lady, from Hillary Clinton to Jill Biden,” Biden made the remarks while joking with aides.
According to Reuters, the book comes out this week and was authored by New York Times White House correspondent Katie Rogers.
Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden, the second and current wife of Biden, was born on June 3, 1951. She met Biden while on a blind date in March 1975.
Jill and Biden were married by a Catholic priest on June 17, 1977, at the Chapel at the United Nations in New York City.
This was four and a half years after his first wife and infant daughter died.
Biden had proposed several times before she accepted, as she was wary of entering the public spotlight, anxious to remain focused on her career, and initially hesitant to take on the commitment of raising his two young sons who had survived the accident.
Rogers writes that Biden opted against running for president in 2004, a decision punctuated by aides when Jill Biden entered the room wearing a halter top with the word "NO" scrawled on her stomach.
Joe Biden, now 81, told a group of supporters that year that he had little interest in running for president. "I'd rather be at home making love to my wife while my children are asleep," he said.
The comment drew a shrug from a spokesperson at the time who said then-Senator Biden was "frankly totally in love with his wife," Rogers writes.
"Joe may have tamped down on his public bedroom declarations (in) winning the presidency, but he has joked to aides that 'good sex' is the key to a lasting and happy marriage, much to his wife's chagrin," according to Rogers.
The book 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.