Jill Biden Gets Emotional Telling Kelly Clarkson How Son Beau Biden's Death Shook Her Faith

Jill Biden made it clear she was an open book at her Thursday appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, diving into tough subjects like recovering from a failed marriage, persevering as a teacher in the pandemic, and how she’s handled her hardest losses, including the 2015 loss of her late son Beau Biden. One of FLOTUS Biden’s primary concerns for her tenure in the White House is to improve this country’s cancer care and treatment, a cause near and dear to her heart after Beau’s struggle with brain cancer, but one that she notes is close at hand in all too many American families. Jill describes to host Kelly Clarkson how she prayed day after day during Beau’s sickness for his survival, and admitted her faith was sorely shaken after his death. As the Bidens have done repeatedly in recent weeks, Jill put her vulnerability first and explained it was the strength of her faith, and confidence “that God would let him live” that left her so broken after he passed.

Clarkson asks Jill specifically about her experience losing and regaining faith during their conversation, knowing the Biden family’s tragic backstory. But Jill turns to viewers to offer context they may not have understood.

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“We lost our son Beau to cancer, he was 46 years old, and I prayed so hard every day that he was going to live,” she said. “And I felt like he was such a special person that God would let him live and I just prayed and prayed and then — it just wasn’t meant to be. And when we lost Beau it was hard for me to keep my faith because I had believed so strongly in prayer and that he’d make it.”

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Jill pauses, admitting: “It took me a long time, Kelly,” before breaking into the story of how she found her way back to her faith.

“We were in a church just a year ago,” she says, “and a woman came up to me in church and said, ‘Jill I want to be your prayer partner.’ And I had never even heard of a prayer partner…She started to call me and we would pray together and to this day, she calls me maybe twice a week; we email, we text one another, and it really helped me find my faith again. It was like God was saying to me, ‘okay Jill, you had time. Come back.'”

Jill seems to have found comfort in a return to her faith, but her immense heartbreak is clear too. She emphasizes the importance of hope and working toward a better tomorrow, having faith both in God and the possibility for change.

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