There was a moment in his life when Joe Biden even thought about suicide and drowning his pain in alcohol. It was when he lost his first wife, Neilia, a teacher, and his 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, in a car accident on December 18, 1972. The president of the United States made this stark confession during a surprise interview with radio host Howard Stern. In an hour-long conversation, Biden talked about his personal life and his life in the White House. In one of the most intense moments, the president spoke from the heart, going back to when he was 30 and a week before Christmas he had seen half his family destroyed: «I was sitting there thinking, now I’m going to open a bottle of scotch . I’ll go and get drunk.” «I thought about it – he added, thinking about the extreme gesture – you don’t need to be crazy to commit suicide. If you think you’ve reached the top of the mountain, you think it will never happen again. So I thought: I’ll go to the Delaware Memorial (the bridge, ed.) and jump.” Biden advised those struggling with suicidal temptations to ask for help.
The interview took many by surprise because it was not expected. The president had attended a fundraiser for his election campaign on Thursday evening, hosted by actor Michael Douglas, in Westchester County, north of New York. The radio host asked Biden to talk about how he met his first wife, when he played football and stories related to his stuttering problem. Biden called himself a “stupid man” about his time in law school, and he didn’t take school seriously. At one point Stern asked him if he had ever looked for women on Facebook who had rejected him in his youth, so he could make fun of them now that he has become president. Biden responded with laughter.
