You Might See First Lady Dr. Jill Biden In A SoulCycle Class Near You
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We’ve just finished tall glasses of iced tea in the First Lady’s garden on the south lawn of the White House, and Jill Biden is crouching next to a flourishing mint plant. She’s made an impromptu decision to send me back home to Brooklyn with a fresh bouquet, except she doesn’t have scissors. Blue eyes twinkling, she procures a medium-size knife from one of the Secret Service agents standing nearby on this breezy, cloudless May day. She had a feeling he’d have one tucked away for her protection. Problem solved.
“Smell this,” she urges, extending the small bunch of peonies, lilacs, and mint toward me.
She’s preemptively delighted by the simple pleasures of these blooming spring flowers, the late afternoon sunshine, and, maybe, the opportunity to share some of her First Lady of the United States of America magic with me. I’ll return home with a good story for my three young children, and I think she knows it.
Biden, or Dr. B, as her staff calls her, has just shown the kind of moving generosity that might be expected when hosting a journalist at the White House and sitting for a cover profile interview. Yet the gesture feels totally genuine.
Her face is luminous, and her posture is poised as she stands in well-worn On Cloud 5 sneakers and a color-block dress; she strikes me as authentic, warm, and completely at ease with herself. The opposite of performative.
The oldest of five daughters, the 72-year-old grew up outside of Philadelphia. Her mother, Bonny, was the rock of the family, especially after her father died 24 years ago, and Biden tells me that she and her sisters told her everything.
“Our mother was such a good listener,” Biden remembers. “She was my role model.” When Bonny passed away in 2008, Biden was devastated, but even so, she immediately stepped up to assume the role of mother hen. “I feel like I got my inner strength from my mother,” she says.
And Biden seems to be constantly calibrating that strength: She knows when it’s shored up, senses when it’s ebbing, and years of practice have taught her how to make it flow again. She seems to measure the attribute in those around her too.
There it is, as we begin talking about her relationship with the President—Joe to her—which began in 1975 when she was a senior at the University of Delaware. She is remembering their first date, a story that has been well documented in the press and involves her canceling dinner with a different guy at the last second. But in this telling, I hear something different, and deeper.
“I was drawn to his strength,” says Biden, who, like everyone else in the close-knit college community, had heard about the catastrophic car crash three years before that took the lives of the then-senator’s wife, Neilia, and 1-year-old daughter, Naomi.
His young sons, Beau and Hunter, survived but required extensive medical treatment, with Joe shuttling nonstop between the Capitol and the hospital. “I was drawn to…to what kind of strength was in this man that allowed him to find joy again,” Biden remembers.
At a White House reception I attended for Women’s History Month in March, President Biden joked about his habit of pursuing Jill even today. It got a lot of laughs, the mental image of the President courting his partner of 40-plus years. Indeed, he had to propose five times before she accepted.
But now, Biden tells me the real reason she didn’t say yes right away: “I had to be sure we were going to make it.” Sure that she would be Joe’s wife forever and ever. Sure that Beau and Hunter would not lose another mother, this time to divorce.
It is a beautiful and pragmatic and heartbreaking jumble of emotion. Her ability to see the pain of our human experience and not run in the other direction is a superpower. Perhaps Joe sensed that, and it was the magnetic force pulling him toward her all along. They married in 1977, and the Biden family expanded again when Joe and Jill had a daughter, Ashley, four years later.
Many years have passed since those early dating days, but the couple keeps their relationship strong with candlelit dinners at the White House when they’re not on the road or hosting guests or at an event.
And, Biden tells me with a chuckle—eyes twinkling again—Joe phones her a few times every day to check in. I imagine the leader of the free world calling this woman sitting in front of me for a gut check or to celebrate a win or just to hear her voice. It makes my heart happy to know how often they talk.
It’s an unseasonably warm Friday in April, and we are at the cover shoot for this story on the coast of Delaware, where she shares a home with Joe that they visit from time to time on holidays and the weekends, often joined by their kids and grandchildren.
Biden arrives on set right on time. Fuss-free and clear-eyed while sitting for hair and makeup in a blue-and-white striped sweater and jeans, she changes outfits between photo setups so quickly that the crew is often caught off guard that she’s already back outside, ready for the next take. Biden smiles, tilts her chin, turns her head, gamely follows the photographer’s direction as the sun shimmers off the Atlantic Ocean.
The day closes with Biden wading along the shoreline, barefoot in a long black dress, for her final photograph. Her eyes seem quieter than usual to me, maybe it’s a hint of fatigue emerging after a long day, but she is determined to finish strong.
And suddenly, it’s a wrap, and I step into the tide beside her, leaning in for a hug to thank Biden for her time, her energy. But the moment is interrupted by a production assistant jogging over to offer her a bottle of cold water. Biden starts to reach for it, then stops herself and turns to me, “Liz, are you thirsty? Have this water!”
I have been in the shade merely watching all day. I want to tell her, That drink is for you, woman! You earned it today! I want to see her rip off the cap and chug it. She told me of her love for water sports like paddleboarding and swimming. I want her to hand me the empty bottle and sprint into the bay, diving under the surface, her eyes shining as she comes up for air.
She cannot. It’s the great irony of Biden’s role that her innate vitality and effervescence are constantly in check. She is endearingly unscripted, curious, and authentic in her interactions and appearances, which can be at odds with the reality that everything she says and does is scrutinized under a metaphorical microscope by the press, and thus the American people. It comes with the territory, of course, but I hope she has time to indulge her joie de vivre when the cameras, and crew, and pressure are all gone.
One thing I know she will do during her weekend downtime in Delaware is cook, an activity she’s always loved but doesn’t have much time for with her packed schedule of official duties. She especially loves fish, and every kind of vegetable.
When she’s teaching—Biden has taught English and writing at Northern Virginia Community College since 2009, the first FLOTUS to maintain an independent career while in the White House—she eats during her midmorning break, usually grilled fish plus vegetables, always out of her purple lunch bag.
“I like fresh food more than fried cafeteria food, so that’s what I pack,” she says, from our picnic table perch in the White House garden.
Dinner is often a healthy, hearty salad. She excitedly tells me about the one that White House executive chef Cristeta “Cris” Comerford made the night before: greens topped with zucchini fritters plus vegetables and herbs from the leafy plots around us.
When Biden’s kids were young, she was a self-described expert meal prepper.
“I had to be organized. I would [make] my shopping lists to make sure there were balanced meals with proteins and vegetables,” says Biden, who earned a doctorate in education and two master’s degrees and has taught English at various levels since 1976.
“I went through phases, like when I got a pasta machine,” she laughs. “The kids just loved it when I made flavored pastas for them.”
Although they were intensely busy with Joe’s senator duties, Biden’s teaching, and the kids’ full school and activity schedules, there was an idyllic innocence to those early days of child-rearing, many years before Joe was elected vice president alongside President Barack Obama, when they’d all bake cupcakes together on special occasions.
But the family has also endured deep tragedy, and there is a perceptible energy shift at the picnic table when I steer the conversation in this direction. It’s not that she’s armoring herself, exactly, but she sits up a little straighter. Later, I realize it’s because Biden knows she’ll have to find the strength to go deep inside herself as she reflects on the unexpected death of her son Beau, in 2015, from brain cancer.
“I didn’t think he was going to die,” she tells me. “I just kept praying he was going to live. And then when he did [die], I found I could no longer pray.” Spirituality has been an integral part of her life, and this crisis of faith surprised her. Prayer had always been a dependable source of strength.
After about two years of taking one proverbial step at a time, in spite of her disorienting grief, Biden found that she could pray again. And through some mysterious alchemy, something that she still doesn’t quite understand, Biden found that she could leverage the intensity of her pain to help mitigate it in others who were hurting.
In partnership with Joe, she leveled up her support for breast cancer patients and preventive cancer testing and launched the White House Cancer Moonshot, an ambitious organization that aims to prevent cancer through technology and research.
Like prayer, writing and meditation are also tools Biden relies on to navigate challenges both big and small. Fitness is another lightning rod of power, and she turns to it daily. An avid cyclist (outdoors, in boutique fitness studios, and at home on a Peloton), a runner, and a barre enthusiast, Biden works out most mornings of the week.
During an April trip to Denver, where she spoke at the Capitol about the Biden Administration’s economic policies and the job-related opportunities they’re creating, she’s in the hotel lobby in workout clothes by 6:30 a.m.
I’m embedded with her team to see her in action on a typical day, and this is just like any morning on the road: sweating is nonnegotiable, and everyone—security, communications, aides—is more than welcome to join in.
The motorcade winds through the empty streets of Denver at dawn until we arrive at SoulCycle. In the studio lobby, as she admires the racks of tees and lounge pants, she is encouraging me to join her in purchasing a ribbed, bubble gum–hued Year of Ours sports bra or leggings.
I’m on the fence (muted tones are more my thing), but she’s convincing as she cracks good-natured jokes and assures me that we can pull off any color. “Ready for your speech, Liz?” she teases, but my job today is to watch her do hers. She wins me over: I buy the sports bra, persuaded I can rock pink.
Soon we’re in the studio clipping in with Secret Service agents and aides on their own bikes, Beyoncé blaring. If the Colorado early birds in our class realize that FLOTUS and her security detail are pedaling too, they don’t show it.
As we do tapbacks, I imagine Biden is mentally going over her script for the address she’ll make in a couple of hours at the Capitol, but later she tells me that early-morning workouts are her time to focus inward.
“I need to be with myself and find inner strength so I can be strong for everyone else,” she says. Exercise is one of the only things she does entirely for herself, and years of practice have made her a pro at being present in the moment.
Several weeks later, at King Charles III’s coronation in London, Biden is back at a SoulCycle, this time with Akshata Murty, the U.K. prime minister’s wife.
Wherever she goes, it’s not a question of if she’ll get a workout in, but where, when, and how to manage the logistics. At the White House, she’s up at 5:45 a.m. to feed the family cat and dog, then is outside as quickly as possible to walk Commander, the Bidens’ German shepherd, while catching the sunrise. (Joe is more of a night person and does the final dog walk before bed.)
She loves jogging in the White House driveway. Well, she loves jogging. She makes it work in the driveway because it’s too difficult to arrange for the security that would be required for her to run the sidewalks of D.C.
Fitness has always been part of Biden’s life. As a child, she loved roller skating, then got into ice skating in college, and later, while pregnant with Ashley, discovered how good swimming feels. She rode bikes with her three kids throughout their childhoods.
But her inner athlete really emerged when she ran the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., back in 1998. “I was on an endorphin high for three days afterward!” she says, reminiscing on how Beau jumped in and ran a few miles of the race with her. “I am so glad I have that memory,” she says, her voice softening, and I wonder if her eyes are going to fill with tears. But they are clear, and she is smiling.
Running 26.2 miles (at a speedy clip of 10:19 per mile; yes, I race-stalked her) was only possible through consistent hard work, which is pretty much how Biden approaches everything challenging in her life. She’s not afraid to admit—scratch that, she eagerly shares—how much effort it takes to do “anything worth doing well.”
Her marathon journey began by running a few blocks in her former neighborhood in Delaware, and she added more distance as the weeks clicked by. Step by step, the miles added up. Although she didn’t cross the finish line desperate to run another marathon, she has continued doing 5-Ks and 10-Ks ever since.
Biden’s lengthy career in public service feels like a marathon in its own right: a senator’s wife since the mid-’70s, Second Lady from 2009 to 2017, continued devotion to cancer work and educational advocacy during her four-year “civilian” stint, followed by a return to the White House as First Lady in 2021. And now she’s gearing up for another campaign ahead of the 2024 election year.
Public speaking is a constant as she criss-crosses the country and world these days, but it was not something she aspired to. Biden was happy connecting with constituents one-on-one until she realized that speeches were an effective means of getting people to care about important issues. She’s passionate about support for the families of troops, access to education for all, female empowerment, and cancer prevention.
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Fast-forward to present day, and Biden regularly wows large crowds. And she never goes in “cold”—she credits her strength as an orator to how much she preps.
“I practice, I rehearse, I want it to be really good,” she says. “Because I care! And when you care, you want it to resonate with people, you want it to matter.” It’s refreshing to hear a strong woman fully own her powerful voice…and also acknowledge that it didn’t come easily.
She may have hit her stride onstage recently, but she arguably always had the makings of a great speaker, thanks to her many years as a teacher. Addressing a roomful of college-age students—getting them excited about reading and writing—is a challenge, after all.
Some of her proudest professional highlights involve the young women she’s seen grow from anxious and withdrawn to self-sufficient and hopeful. She is known for taking students under her wing and has long overseen a mentoring network that connects young women with confidantes/advisors from the school faculty.
Biden wants women to know that it is crucial to be independent…financially, emotionally, mentally. That’s why she believes education is so critical: It gives women the skills to secure a job, to make a living, to stand on their own two feet.
“You never know where this life is going to take you,” Biden says, and it strikes me as a little dark, but it’s also honest. She saw Beau’s wife, her daughter-in-law, go from married to single mom with two teenagers in an instant.
Less close to home, she and Joe regularly tour disaster zones right after the hurricane—or flood, or fire, or war—has swept through. She locks eyes with the victims, holding space for their unimaginable loss. She clasps their hands and squeezes them tightly, without flinching. So who can blame her for the reality check?
The truth is that the world is hard, and in ways that are sometimes completely unpredictable. But Biden is not hardened by it; she leans in, a softness bolstering her inner strength.
It’s time for us to wrap up our conversation in the garden, and Biden’s aides are gently but firmly reminding her that she’s meeting the President very soon. Yes, yes, but she just wants to finish my bouquet, and then—Oh, can we please get some honey from the apiary where the bees are flitting about, and let’s take a quick picture too—and within a minute or two, it’s all been sorted for me. Now she’s swiftly walking up the slope of the lawn, security detail flanking her at a distance, hurrying to get in place for whatever is next.
Several minutes later I’m back outside the White House gates, holding my bouquet with its stems carefully wrapped in a wet paper towel (Biden’s idea) to keep the blooms fresh during my flight home.
I scroll the news on my phone as I walk—monuments and congressional buildings and the gravitas of democracy all around me—and stop in my tracks. There is Biden, live on the news, next to the President as he addresses reporters on the anniversary of the Uvalde school shootings. Her face is somber but calm, and she’s wearing a dark brown suit. If I hadn’t seen her in sneakers mere minutes earlier, I wouldn’t believe the transition was possible.
I find myself hoping the cameras will zoom in on her. I want to see the compassion radiating from her eyes, to hear the empathy in her voice, to feel her mothering the nation.
She does not speak today, but there will be other moments that call for her presence. Some tragic. Confusing. Others uplifting. Inspiring. Whatever the situation requires, she will go deep within and ready herself to be the healing balm the nation needs.
I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I know that I could use some extra strength. And our First Lady has it in spades.
Photographed by Alexi Lubomirski. Styled by Kristen Saladino. Hair: Teddy Charles/NVM. Makeup: Genevieve Herr/Sally Harlor Artists. Production: Kona Mori/Mori Projects. Set Design: Dylan Lynch. Shot on Location at Children’s Beach House, Lewes, Delaware.
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