The President offered some blunt advice on how to have a lasting marriage.
People always say marriage is a partnership and apparently, according to new remarks, President Joe Biden agrees wholeheartedly with that statement.
While he and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, were offering some insight into how they’ve made their 43-year marriage work, the President shared a tough but important truth: you can’t expect that partnership to be a perfectly-shared partnership all of the time.
“Everybody says marriage is 50/50,” President Biden told People. “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.”
The President’s simple message is about not basing your marriage on ideals and fantasies rather than reality. Sure, it sounds great for a marriage to be a 50/50 partnership all of the time but that’s simply not possible. Sometimes, you are struggling and you need your spouse to pick up the slack while, other times, your partner may be struggling and it’s up to you to help them get by. Jill spoke about how this approach to marriage specifically helped them when they were dealing with the death of their son Beau.
“All that we’ve been through together — the highs, the lows and certainly tragedy and loss — there’s that quote that says sometimes you become stronger in the fractured places,” Dr. Biden said. “That’s what we try to achieve.”
The President gave his wife credit for keeping the family together during even the most difficult times and for inspiring him to continue to work to be the best version of himself he can be.
“Jill came along at a really important point and put my family back together,” President Biden explained. “She’s the glue that held it together, and I knew that I wanted to marry her shortly after I met her . . . It’s not that we don’t fight and argue sometimes. I’m just lucky.”
