Meet Joe Biden’s South African Daughter In Law. Incoming American president Joe Biden has been linked to South Africa after it emerged that his daughter in law is South African.
Melissa Biden Cohen, 34, hails from Johannesburg and married Hunter Biden last year. Cohen studied interior design in SA and moved to Los Angeles in her early twenties.
On Saturday evening, a 34-year old South African appeared with the Biden family on stage in Wilmington, Delaware, as the new US president elect thanked the nation in his victory speech.
Melissa Biden Cohen, from Johannesburg, married Joe Biden’s 50-year old son Hunter last year – within a week of meeting him.
Hunter Biden told the New Yorker that after the ceremony (in her small Los Angeles flat), “I called my dad and said that we just got married. He was on speaker, and he said to her, ‘Thank you for giving my son the courage to love again.’
Earlier this year, Melissa Biden Cohen gave birth to their son, who took centre stage with Biden at this weekend’s celebrations.
The seven-month old is reportedly named Beau, after Hunter Biden’s brother, who passed away from brain cancer in 2015.
Hunter Biden's new wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, expecting his fifth child https://t.co/YPR1pYHTUu pic.twitter.com/8L3YP1QtXi
— New York Post (@nypost) December 13, 2019
According to reports, Melissa Biden Cohen was adopted into a Johannesburg family, the youngest of four siblings and the only girl. Her mom, Zoe, is a social worker who specialises in adoption. But according to the Daily Mail, Cohen has claimed in the past that she was raised by an isiXhosa woman, who took her for frequent visits to the Transkei, and that she only learned to speak English when she was six.
Melissa Biden Cohen matriculated from King David High School Victory Park, and started studying at the University of Johannesburg before moving to the Greenside Design Center College of Design, where she received a qualification in interior design.
She moved to the US when she turned 21, reportedly to do a course in horticulture in Los Angeles.
From her social media accounts, previous reports have gathered that she spent some time travelling in Bali, Europe and Africa in recent years, ending up visiting the Himba indigenous people in Namibia.
Main Image: iHarare News
