Ashley Biden's Late Brother Beau Set Her Up with Husband Howard Krein Before His Death: Inside the Couple's 15-Year Relationship
Former first daughter Ashley Biden filed for divorce from her husband, Dr. Howard Krein, on Aug. 11, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer
Ashley was introduced to Krein by her late older brother, Beau Biden, who was in the hospital after suffering a stroke when he facilitated their first date
Beau's stroke would later be recognized as a symptom of the aggressive brain cancer that killed him in May 2015 at age 46Ashley Biden, the daughter of former President Joe Biden and former first lady Dr. Jill Biden, has reportedly filed for divorce from her husband, Dr. Howard Krein, after 13 years of marriage.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Ashley, 44, filed the the documents in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas on Monday, Aug. 11. She and Krein, 58, have been married since June 2, 2012.
Ashley was initially set up with Krein by her late brother, Beau Biden. President Biden told the story of their unfortunate meet-cute in a December 2014 conversation with Politico.
In 2010, Beau was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. The medical emergency, as it turns out, would change the life of both the Delaware attorney general and his younger sister in drastically different ways.
While Beau was recovering, Joe recalled, Ashley came to the hospital to check on him at the same time that her future husband, who knew Beau, stopped by for a visit.
"Ashley walked in the room, panicked about her brother and jumped in bed with him and [said] 'Beau, you okay, honey?' " the former president remembered in the 2014 interview.
"This guy [Krein] was at the foot of the bed visiting. And after it was all over, Howard walked up to Beau and said, 'Beau, you think you could set me up with your sister?' " Joe added.
Ashley initially refused the idea, her father claimed, but Beau wore her down. "He said, 'As a favor, please, for me, do this.' [She said], 'Okay, alright, alright.' "
Krein, who is 15 years her senior, was an impressive candidate. A plastic surgeon with both an M.D. and a Ph.D., he would also become an associate professor of otolaryngology at Thomas Jefferson University, a founding partner and co-director of the school's Facial Aesthetic and Reconstructive Center, and the chief medical officer at StartUp Health, which helps entrepreneurs build sustainable health and wellness companies.
Later on, when Joe asked his daughter how the date went, "She said, 'Ah, he's alright.' " Two years later, they were married, in an interfaith Catholic and Jewish ceremony at the same Delaware church where Ashley was baptized.
Their wedding reception was held in the Bidens' backyard. Ashley shared an anecdote about the ceremony in a speech at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, recalling, "At the time, my dad was vice president, but he was also that dad who literally set up the entire reception. He was riding around in his John Deere four-wheeler, fixing the place settings, arranging the plants."
https://people-app.onelink.me/HNIa/kz7l4cuf
Thankfully, the big brother who introduced the couple got to see his sister's special day. But it was a close call.
As it turned out, the stroke that landed Beau in the hospital in 2010 was part of the reason doctors eventually discovered he had glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive type of brain cancer.
Chemotherapy and radiation kept the disease in check for a few years, but on May 20, 2015, he was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Ten days later, he died at the age of 46.
Ashley has kept Beau's memory alive throughout the years. When she founded the clothing brand Livelihood in 2017, the logo — the letters LH being pierced by an arrow — was a tribute to her late brother.
"We have to sometimes be pulled all the way down to shoot forward," Ashley explained to The Lily in 2020. "He was my bow. His cancer brought me to my knees. I had no choice but to shoot forward, keep going, keep aiming at my own dreams."
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While Ashley is technically a half-sister to Beau and Hunter — who are Joe's sons from his first marriage to late wife Neilia — the Biden family bond is strong. The former first daughter doesn't have much of a social media presence, but many of the photos she does post feature the smiling former president and first lady, as well as her nieces and nephews.
In fact, Ashley traveled with Beau's daughter, Natalie, on Joe's final official international trip as president in December 2024. Ashley celebrated her adventure with "my girl" with an Instagram photo carousel of memories.
Throughout Krein's 15-year relationship with Ashley, he has stayed mostly out of public view, first while his father-in-law was vice president, then throughout Joe's presidency.
Ashley frequently attended events with the Biden family while her father was in office, usually without Krein, a practicing physician and professor who specializes in plastic surgery and facial reconstruction.
In 2013 and 2016, Krein was out in the spotlight with Joe and Jill on international diplomacy trips, and he was notably in the Oval Office beside Ashley in July 2025 as President Biden delivered a speech from the Resolute Desk about his historic decision to end his reelection campaign.
After the Bidens left the White House in January, Ashley and Krein returned to living largely private lives. The divorce filing was confirmed to the Inquirer through a representative for Ashley, and she has not yet publicly commented on the news.
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The Hill
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Leo seems eager above all to avoid polemics or making the papacy about himself, and wants instead to focus on Christ and peace. That seems exactly what many Catholic faithful want, and may respond to what today's church needs. 'He's been very direct and forthright … but he's not doing spontaneous press hits,' said Kevin Hughes, chair of theology and religious studies at Leo's alma mater, Villanova University. Leo has a different style than Francis, and that has brought relief to many, Hughes said in a telephone interview. 'Even those who really loved Pope Francis always kind of held their breath a little bit: You didn't know what was going to come out next or what he was going to do,' Hughes said. An effort to avoid polemics Leo has certainly gone out of his way in his first 100 days to try to heal divisions that deepened during Francis' pontificate, offering messages of unity and avoiding controversy at almost every turn. 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At 69, he seems to know that he has time on his side, and that after Francis' revolutionary papacy, the church might need a bit of a breather. One Vatican official who knows Leo said he expects his papacy will have the effect of a 'calming rain' on the church. Maria Isabel Ibarcena Cuarite, a Peruvian member of a Catholic charismatic group, said it was precisely Leo's quiet emphasis on church traditions, its sacraments and love of Christ, that drew her and upward of 1 million young people to Rome for a special Jubilee week this month. Ibarcena said Francis had confused young people like herself with his outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics and approval of blessings for same-sex couples. Such gestures went beyond what a pope was supposed to do and what the church taught, she thought. Leo, she said, has emphasized that marriage is a sacrament between men and woman. 'Francis was ambiguous, but he is firm,' she said. 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Leo joined the Augustinians after graduating from Augustinian-run Villanova, outside Philadelphia, and was twice elected its prior general. He has visited the Augustinian headquarters outside St. Peter's a few times since his election, and some wonder if he will invite some brothers to live with him in the Apostolic Palace to recreate the spirit of Augustinian community life there. A missionary pope in the image of Francis Leo is also very much a product of the Francis papacy. Francis named Prevost bishop of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014 and then moved him to head one of the most important Vatican jobs in 2023 — vetting bishop nominations. In retrospect, it seems Francis had his eye on Prevost as a possible successor. Given Francis' stump speech before the 2013 conclave that elected him pope, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio essentially described Prevost in identifying the church's mission today: He said the church was "called to go outside of itself and go to the peripheries, not just geographic but also the existential peripheries.' Prevost, who hails from Chicago, spent his adult life as a missionary in Peru, eventually becoming bishop of Chiclayo. 'He is the incarnation of the 'unity of difference,' because he comes from the center, but he lives in the peripheries,' said Emilce Cuda, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Cuda said during a recent conference hosted by Georgetown University that Leo encapsulated in 'word and gesture' the type of missionary church Francis promoted. That said, for all Leo owes to Bergoglio, the two didn't necessarily get along. 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The most conservative college in the US is just a short drive from lefty LA — and has just 372 students
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