Linda Stevenson, the wife of former first lady Jill Biden’s ex-husband Bill Stevenson, was found dead Sunday night after police responded to a domestic dispute call at the couple’s Delaware home.
New Castle County Police officers were called to a residence in the 1300 block of Idlewood Road in Oak Hill around 11:15 p.m. on December 28 for a reported domestic dispute. When officers entered the home, they said 64-year-old Linda Stevenson was found unresponsive in the living room.
“Officers immediately administered life-saving measures; however, despite their efforts, Linda Stevenson was later pronounced deceased,” the New Castle County Division of Police said in a statement.
TMZ reported that Bill Stevenson, 77, was the one who called 911 and was at the home when police arrived and pronounced his wife dead. Dispatch audio, obtained by TMZ from the incident, mentioned cardiac arrest. No charges have been filed in the case.
Police said Bill Stevenson has spoken with detectives and is cooperating with law enforcement.
Detectives from the New Castle County Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Unit are handling the death investigation. Linda Stevenson’s body has been transferred to the Delaware Division of Forensic Science, where an autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause and manner of death.
Bill Stevenson was previously married to Jill Jacobs, who later became Jill Biden. Bill married Jill in February 1970, when he was 23 and she was a student at the University of Delaware.
The couple separated in 1974 and went through what Bill described as a “nasty” divorce that was finalized in May 1975. Jill married then-Senator Joe Biden in June 1977.
Two years after marrying Jill, Bill Stevenson opened The Stone Balloon in 1972, a college bar and live music venue near the University of Delaware campus in Newark. Stevenson reportedly sold the property in the mid-1980s due to financial difficulties.
In interviews over the years, Bill Stevenson has spoken warmly about his second marriage.
“If it wasn’t for my divorce, I would never have met my wife Linda and she’s the greatest thing in my life,” Stevenson told The Daily Mail in 2020.
Bill Stevenson has been a controversial figure in recent years due to allegations he has made about the timeline of Joe and Jill Biden’s relationship. According to the widely told story, Joe Biden first saw Jill’s photograph in a local Wilmington, Delaware advertisement in March 1975. His brother Frank, who knew Jill from college, set Joe up on a blind date with her. They saw a movie together and fell in love.
However, Bill Stevenson has claimed this account is a lie, and alleged that he and Jill had known Joe Biden and his first wife Neilia going back to 1972, and that Joe and Jill began an affair in 1974 before he and Jill had separated.
In recent years, Bill Stevenson has become a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and was critical of the Biden administration. He has referred to his ex-wife’s family as the “Biden crime family.”
In a 2024 interview, Stevenson said he barely recognized his former wife.
“The Dr. Jill Biden who I’ve seen on TV in the last five years is not the same person I married or that I recognize in any way,” he said. “She’s matriculated into a completely different woman.”