Jill Biden reveals why she declined Michelle Obama’s offer to attend her mother’s funeral in memoir
WASHINGTON, DC: Jill Biden is laying bare some of her most personal incidents in a candid new memoir, 'View From the East Wing,' that revisits pivotal moments from her life and time in the White House.
In one such incident, the former first lady recalled why she declined Michelle Obama's offer to attend her mother's funeral during the 2008 presidential campaign.
Jill’s mother, Bonny Jean Jacobs, died n 2008, when she was balancing campaign duties as her husband, then-Senator Joe Biden, was running alongside Barack Obama on the Democratic ticket.
Jill Biden explains her reasoning for shutting out Michelle Obama
Jill Biden was on a run through Wilmington when a Secret Service agent approached with unexpected news. "We got a call," the agent told her. "You have to go home."
After learning that her mother was nearing the end of her life, Jill hurried home to be with her family, later recalling how she and her sisters gathered at their mother's bedside during her final days.
The loss came at a particularly difficult time for the Biden family, who were preparing to bid farewell to Beau Biden, who was set for his deployment to Iraq.
After spending several days at home handling funeral arrangements and mourning with her family, she returned to the campaign trail. That’s when Michelle approached her with a request to attend her mother’s funeral.
"As soon as my mother’s death was announced, Michelle Obama called from the campaign trail," Jill said, recalling that the former first lady expressed heartfelt condolences before telling her, "I'll see you at the funeral."
Jill, whose four sisters have largely stayed out of the public eye, worried that Michelle's presence at the height of the 2008 campaign would bring an overwhelming media spotlight to an otherwise private family farewell.
"I have four sisters," Jill recalled telling Michelle. "This funeral is going to be so hard on them, and it has to be about my sisters losing a mother. It can’t be just about me."
She continued by explaining that she feared reporters and cameras would descend on the service if Michelle attended.
"I'm afraid that if you’re there, the press will treat it as a major event and pull focus away from my sisters," Jill wrote. The future first lady said Michelle immediately understood. "I totally get it," Michelle responded.
Jill Biden details frosty exchange with Melania Trump
Elsewhere in her memoir, Jill Biden recounted an encounter with another first lady, one that proved far more awkward than the exchange with Obama.
Jill wrote that she had hoped to strike a conciliatory tone during Donald Trump's inauguration in 2025 after a bitter election season and even chose her outfit with that in mind.
However, her hopes soon began to unravel as she stepped into a limousine with Melania Trump for a ride to the ceremony at the US Capitol, accompanied by John Bessler, the husband of Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar.
“I don’t know how long this has been a tradition, but it certainly helps with the awkwardness,” she wrote, adding, Bessler “must have drawn the shortest of all possible straws” when he was asked to do it.
“The presidents’ car was likely frosty too, but at least they’d spent considerable time in each other’s company,” the author observed. “This would be one of the few interactions Melania and I had ever had.”
Jill suggested that the tension stemmed in part from Melania’s belief that Biden had a hand in an extensive search of Mar-a-Lago.
“Melania blamed Joe personally for the FBI searching through her private spaces at Mar-a-Lago,” Biden wrote. “I have compassion for her, having been subject to the same kind of search. I knew how distressing it was to have agents rummage through your underwear drawer.”
