A BREATH OF FRESH AIR

Meet Jill Biden – mother, gran, professor, prankster and the next first lady of the United States

- SANDY COOK

SHE’S gone by many titles over the years.

At one point she was second lady – although she preferred captain of the vice squad, thank you very much. She’s also been known as prankster, professor, wife, mom, gran and, more recently, protector-in-chief.

And it’s the last one that surfaced again this year when Jill Biden shielded her husband, Joe Biden, from hecklers as the couple campaigned across the US for Joe to become president.

In a video clip that went viral, the woman who will become US first lady on 20 January is seen pushing people who wanted to get near her husband and ordering others to keep their distance.

It’s unsurprising, by many accounts – a young Jill once punched a boy in the face for bullying one of her younger sisters.

Being her husband’s protector-in-chief has become second nature to Jill over the course of their 43-year marriage. And the president-elect knows it.

“I’m probably the only candidate running for president whose wife is my Secret Service,” he joked with attendees at a fundraiser in Los Angeles in March.

“I thought I heard on the news that the committee in charge of Secret Service decided they have to start providing Secret Service for us. I think that’s because they’re afraid Jill’s going to hurt someone. I tell you what – I married way above my station.”