Exclusive: Ashley Biden to wed in Delaware, Dr. Jill Biden tells Yahoo! Shine
Yahoo! Shine went to the White House this week for an exclusive interview with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden. The conversation focused on Joining Forces, their initiative to support military families, but we had a chance to ask Dr. Biden the question that has Washington abuzz: Will Ashley Biden have a White House wedding?
Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden's daughter, Ashley, accepted Philadelphia physician Dr. Howard Krien's proposal in September after dating for about a year. Last week, during an event in Delaware, the Vice President kept proudly calling Krien his "future son-in-law"-and Washington's social circles caught fire. Courtney Diesel O'Donnell, Dr. Jill Biden's communications director, confirmed the rumors earlier this week.
"Ashley recently got engaged and the Vice President, Dr. Biden and their entire family are thrilled," O'Donnell said in a statement.
Ashley Biden, 30, earned her master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice in May 2010; she specialized in macro social work with a concentration in juvenile justice, poverty, and education. Her dad spoke at the ceremony, telling the 150 or so graduates that "The thing that I love about you all… is that you believe in possibilities, the possibility that you can make things better" and adding that their belief is what fuels progressive social change.
Ashley is the youngest of the Vice President's children. He has two sons, Joseph "Beau" and Hunter, from his marriage to Neilia Hunter Biden, who died in a car accident in 1972 along their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, whom they called Amy. He married Jill Jacobs in 1977; their daughter, Ashley, was born in 1981.
Ashley Biden's fiance, Dr. Howard Krein, is a Philadelphia-based ear, nose, and throat doctor who specializes in facial and reconstructive surgery. He is the chief medical officer of OrganizedWisdom Health, an assistant professor of head and neck surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hostpital, and the co-director of the Herbert Jean Center for Facial Aesthetics there. He earned a Ph.D in Cell and Developmental Biology from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey in 1996, and his medical doctorate from Thomas Jefferson University in 2000, according to his LinkedIn profile.
No details about the wedding have been released, but the bride's parents were married by a Catholic priest in a family-only ceremony held at the United Nations chapel in New York City, followed by a lunch reception at the legendary Sign of the Dove restaurant, according to the Vice President's autobiography, "Promises to Keep." "We hadn't told anybody but our family and closest friends," he wrote in his book. "We didn't want to tempt the press."
Stay tuned for more from Yahoo! Shine's exclusive Veterans Day interview with the First Lady and Dr. Biden, only on Yahoo.com.
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