Melissa Cohen Biden | |
|---|---|
_(1).jpg) Biden in 2021 | |
| Born | Melissa Batya Cohen (1986-10-15)October 15, 1986 (age 38) |
| Education | Greenside Design Center College of Design California State University, Long Beach |
| Occupation | Activist |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Family | Biden (by marriage) |
Melissa Batya Cohen Biden (néeCohen; born October 15, 1986)[1] is a South African‐American activist. She is married toHunter Biden, son of 46th U.S. PresidentJoe Biden.
Melissa Cohen was born inJohannesburg,South Africa. She lived in an orphanage and was three years old when adopted by Lee and Zoe Cohen, aSouth African Jewish couple with three sons.[2][3] She attendedKing David High School Victory Park, a Jewish day school, before studying interior design at Greenside Design Center College of Design in South Africa.[4][5] She moved to Los Angeles when she was 21 years old to attend theUniversity of California, Los Angeles.
While in Los Angeles, she met American businessman Jason Landver. They married in 2011 and separated in 2014.[6] Cohen was an advocate for environmental and nature conservation groups.[4]
After her divorce, Cohen launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary about tribal communities.[7]
In 2019, she metHunter Biden, son of then-formerU.S. Vice President and presidential candidateJoe Biden, through friends. She helped Hunter Biden seek treatment forsubstance use disorder.[8] They have matching "Shalom" tattoos on their left biceps.[2] On May 16, 2019, six days after meeting, they married in a ceremony at her apartment in theHollywood Hills.[9][10][11] In 2019, she became anaturalized citizen of the United States.[1]
Their son, Beau, was born in March 2020 in Los Angeles.[12][13] She is the step-mother to Biden's three adult daughters—Naomi, Finnegan and Maisy—with his first wife and to the daughter, Navy Joan Roberts, he had in 2018 with Lunden Roberts.[14]
She attended theinauguration of Joe Biden in 2021.[13]
She and her family live inMalibu, California.[15]
In June 2024, she accompanied her husband to his trial on federal gun charges, where he was found guilty on all 3 counts inWilmington, Delaware. During a break in the trial on June 4, she confrontedGarrett Ziegler, a former aide toPresident Donald Trump, outside the courtroom. Cohen approached Ziegler, pointed her finger at him and said in a loud voice, "You have no right to be here, you Nazi piece of shit." Her husband had filed a lawsuit against Ziegler, who has been compiling a searchable database of emails discovered onHunter Biden's laptop, in September 2023.[16][17]
