Who is Hunter Biden's mom? A quick look at Neilia Biden and her role in the Biden family

Hunter Biden’s felony gun trial has brought together several members of the Biden family, with first lady Jill Biden seated each day directly behind the defense table.

The president's son refers to Jill Biden as "my mother" in his memoir of drug addiction, but the Biden family's public story really begins with the tragedy of Joe Biden's first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden.

Neilia, Hunter's biological mother, was killed in a car crash in 1972 at age 30 with her 13-month-old daughter Naomi Christina, known as "Amy."

Hunter Biden, who was just three, and his brother Beau, who was four, survived the crash with serious injuries. Joe Biden, who had recently won election to the U.S. Senate, was sworn into office inside the boys' hospital room.

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While Neilia Biden is mostly remembered for the accident in which she and her youngest child were killed, Joe Biden has recalled her as "the brains" behind his political ascent and "a more instinctive pol than I was."

"She came around to the thought that there would always be pressure on me to run for something," Biden told the News Journal, part of the USA TODAY Network. "What she said was, 'I suppose you have to try it once, win or lose, or you'll never be happy with yourself.'"

Here’s a quick look at Neilia Biden and her role in the Biden family.

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What role did Neilia Biden play in Joe Biden’s rise?

Joe Biden met Neilia Biden in 1964 on a beach while he was on a spring break trip in the Bahamas. The couple married in 1966, and were together for six years before her death.

Neilia Biden, a Republican, registered as a Democrat as her husband joined politics. Joe Biden initially was a criminal attorney in Wilmington, and later handled civil cases. At one point, the couple came to a decision that Joe Biden would run for Senate.

"There were only two people who made important decisions in the campaign. Myself and Neilia," Joe Biden told the News Journal in a 1972 interview. "She was the brains. Also she prevented me from blowing my top when I got angry late in the going."

Joe Biden said he came to rely on Neilia Biden as his “adviser.” He unseated a Republican incumbent in a tight 1972 race.

After Neilia Biden died in December of that year, Joe Biden said at a memorial service that she “had a principle – she treated everyone the same and that worked both ways. Those who were poor, Black, minority, affluent or socially esteemed, she made no distinction among them."

Hunter Biden talks trauma from his mother's death

Hunter Biden told CBS News in an interview in 2021 that his battle with addiction began with a "feeling of never fitting in. It's that hole. And you don't know what it is exactly."

Former CBS This Morning co-host Anthony Mason asked him in the interview. "Where do you think that feeling came from?" Hunter Biden replied, "I am more convinced now that trauma is at the center of it."

"Which trauma – the loss of your mother?" Mason asked.

“Yeah. Absolutely. And I don't know why I had such a hard time ever admitting that,” Hunter Biden said.

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In 2022 on the 50th anniversary of his mother’s death, Hunter Biden and other family members attended a private memorial Mass for Neilia in Wilmington, Delaware.

Now, as Hunter Biden sits in a courtroom for his trial, one of his main supporters includes his stepmother, first lady Jill Biden. Joe and Jill Biden married in 1977.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is Neilia Biden? Here's the role she played in the Biden family