We Can't Get Over Natalie Biden's Transformation
Natalie Biden was just four years old when her grandfather began his first term as Barack Obama's vice president, and she reached adulthood before Joe Biden's first term as president ended. She's undergone quite the transformation, but one thing hasn't changed — she always seems to have time for her "Pop."
Natalie is the only daughter of Hallie Biden (née Olivere) and Joe's late son, Beau Biden. She was born in November 2004 and given the middle name Naomi, which is inspired by one of the Biden family's most tragic moments. In 1972, Beau's mother Neilia and his baby sister Naomi died in a car accident. The loss seemed to make Joe determined to focus on what really matters. Speaking about his dad's life philosophy to Popular Mechanics, Hunter Biden said, "Family comes first. Over everything."
Throughout his many years serving as a politician, Joe has maintained a close relationship with his grandchildren, and Naomi often attends political events with him. Back in 2008, the then-3-year-old took the stage with Joe and her grandmother, Dr. Jill Biden, at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. During the Democratic National Convention that same year, Beau praised his dad's dedication to being a good grandfather, describing him as someone "who turns down some fancy cocktail party in Washington so he won't miss my daughter Natalie's birthday party" (via Politico). As Natalie has grown up before Americans' eyes, her grandfather has been present for many other important moments in her life.
How Natalie Biden inspired her grandmother's book
Natalie Biden quickly learned that there were some perks of her grandfather being the president's second-in-command. In 2010, she got to perform the ceremonial kick-off during a Major League Soccer game in Philly. She's apparently a big fan of the sport; according to a blog post on the White House website, First Lady Jill Biden sent Beau Biden pictures from his kids' soccer matches after he was deployed to Iraq in 2008.
Beau served as a major in the Delaware Army National Guard, and his year-long stint overseas served as the inspiration for Jill's children's book, "Don't Forget, Nana, God Bless Our Troops." In a 2012 AP interview (via The Gainesville Sun), Jill revealed that Natalie uttered the words of the title after Jill failed to properly complete their bedtime prayers one evening. The book features a main character named Natalie whose father is also in the military. Jill consulted with her granddaughter while writing it and even included some of Natalie's artwork in the finished product.
Beau returned home in September 2009, so he got to participate in one of Natalie's favorite holiday traditions. In a 2021 "Today" interview, she said that she loved doing a polar plunge with her dad, grandpa, uncle, and cousin Maisy when the family celebrated Thanksgiving in Nantucket. "It would always be crazy because they would have to bring all of the divers and the swimmers for secret service for my pop," Maisy said.
Her father died in 2015
In 2015, Beau Biden died of glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer. After losing her dad, Natalie Biden had to attend a funeral where photographers were present to preserve the painful moment on film. In one image, Joe Biden is giving his granddaughter a comforting kiss on the head.
Before the cancer he had successfully treated in 2013 returned, Beau planned to run for Delaware governor. He'd previously served as the state's attorney general. While he was ambitious, those who knew Beau best remember him as a man who put his family first, just like Joe. "He loved to bring his daughter Natalie into the office, usually on Friday afternoons, to spend time with her. When she was there, she was his whole focus," his former colleague, Patricia Dailey Lewis, recalled in an essay for Time. A 2014 photo on the Beau Biden Foundation account on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows Beau teaching his daughter the value of giving back by participating in a turkey drive with her. In another image, he's pictured with Natalie, his son Robert Hunter Biden II, and his niece Lily at the Delaware State Fair, where the group is posing with a giraffe named Twiggs.
A few weeks after Beau's funeral, Joe seemingly tried to cheer Natalie and her brother up by treating them, their cousin Maisy, and Sasha Obama to a trip to watch Team USA win the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup final in Vancouver.
She spilled a secret about Joe Biden
In a 2015 "60 Minutes" interview, Joe Biden recounted a heartbreaking conversation he had with Natalie Biden. He was explaining how the emotional toll of Beau Biden's death influenced his decision not to run for president in 2016. "[She] puts her arms around me and starts sobbing, says, 'Pop, I see daddy all the time. ... Pop, you smell like daddy. You're not gonna leave me, are you, Pop?'" he recalled. But by 2020, the Biden family was ready to make a bid for the White House together. Natalie appeared in a video about Jill Biden for the Democratic National Convention and participated in a PBS NewsHour interview with three of her cousins. During the latter, she spilled a secret about Joe's famous love of ice cream: Sometimes, he eats it behind the freezer door because he doesn't want Jill to catch him in the act.
Natalie joined her cousins again for their 2021 "Today" interview. She recalled wanting her grandfather to win the election so badly that she tried to use the power of a "manifestation rock" to help him. "I put it up to the full moon and I had everyone in the house touch it, and it worked," she said. The superstitious teen's cousins also convinced her that Joe would lose to Donald Trump unless she jumped into a nasty lake, so she did — and Joe was named the projected winner of Wisconsin immediately afterward.
Her style made her an inauguration standout
Before Joe Biden's inauguration, Americans learned that Natalie Biden was an athlete. Joe mentioned his granddaughter feeling like her father would have been proud of her after a track race on "60 Minutes," and a writer for The New York Times Magazine recalled encountering Joe at one of Natalie's field hockey games. The world discovered that Natalie also has an eye for fashion during her Pop's 2021 inauguration. For the occasion, she wore a custom Lafayette 148 New York coat with a matching scarf and mask. Her cashmere outerwear was Barbie pink — the antithesis of the baby blue outfit Melania Trump wore during her husband's inauguration. "Natalie Biden's pink LEWK is gonna live rent-free in my head for all time," tweeted one fan of the ensemble. "Natalie Biden is my new style icon," read another rave review.
Natalie also became a star on TikTok for a bizarre reason. Some of the platform's users are obsessed with Barron Trump's personal life, and they started shipping the two teens. One video deemed the pair from two different sides of the political aisle a "real-life Romeo & Juliet," and another TikToker described them as "a couple that would break the internet."
Natalie was active on TikTok at the time of the inauguration and had over 1.5 million followers, according to Us Weekly. She's since deleted all her videos and made her account private, but she continued uploading photos to her VSCO page.
Natalie Biden decided to attend her father's alma mater
After Joe Biden won the presidency, he didn't let his new duties get in the way of spending time with Natalie Biden. During a 2022 press gaggle at the White House, Natalie told the media that she celebrated Father's Day with her grandfather. "We had dinner. ... It was really fun, and we did puzzles," she revealed. Later that year, she joined her grandparents when they headed to the U.S. Virgin Islands during the holidays.
When Natalie started touring colleges in 2022, Joe joined her at the University of Pennsylvania, which is Beau Biden's alma mater. According to AP, Natalie decided to follow in her father's footsteps by enrolling there after she graduated from St. Andrew's School in Delaware. Joe and Jill Biden attended her graduation, where "Top Chef" star Gregory Gourdet delivered the commencement speech.
Joe also accompanied Natalie when she cast her first vote during the 2022 midterm elections. They filmed a video documenting the experience. "I really feel like I made a difference," Natalie said. "Everyone's voices matter, no matter what our age is." After she and Joe finished voting, they celebrated with milkshakes. Joe later tweeted that being a part of that important milestone in Natalie's life was one of his "favorite moments" of 2022.