Ashley Biden, the daughter of US President Joe Biden, has filed for divorce from her husband Dr. Howard Krein — just hours after sharing a striking social media post that appeared to target him directly.
The 44-year-old posted an Instagram Story on Sunday morning showing a man and woman walking hand in hand, viewed from behind. Across the image, she wrote: “My husband and his girlfriend holding hands,” and added the Notorious B.I.G. track Another featuring Lil’ Kim — a song that pointedly deals with infidelity.
In the snippet she chose, Lil’ Kim raps: “What do you do when your man is untrue? Do you cut the sucker off and find someone new?”
The man in the photo had dark hair and wore a short-sleeved shirt, while the woman was blonde and dressed in a strapless black outfit. Neither person’s face was visible, but Biden’s caption left little doubt about who she was referring to.
That post was deleted soon after it went live. But it was swiftly followed by another since-removed story — a clip of Ashley walking through a park, giving a thumbs-up while Beyoncé’s Freedom played in the background. A third Instagram Story, set to Lauryn Hill’s Freedom Time, featured a quote about new beginnings: “New life, new beginnings means new boundaries. New ways of being that won’t look or sound like they did before.”
Later that same day, court records show, Biden filed for divorce in Philadelphia after 13 years of marriage. She is seeking spousal support while proceedings are ongoing, claiming through her attorney Charles Meyer that she is “unable to sustain herself” financially during the separation.
The filing, obtained by Radar Online, cites a no-fault divorce and states that the marriage is “irretrievably broken” with the couple living “separate and apart.” Neither Ashley Biden nor Howard Krein has responded publicly to requests for comment.
The pair married in 2012 in Greenville, Delaware, in a ceremony that blended her Catholic upbringing with his Jewish heritage. Two years earlier, they had met through Ashley’s late brother Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015. Krein, a New Jersey-born otolaryngologist and plastic surgeon at Thomas Jefferson University, proposed in 2011 during a trip to Big Sur, California.
Their wedding was a family affair in every sense. The service took place at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church, where generations of the Biden family have worshipped. Afterwards, around 200 guests gathered at the Bidens’ lakeside home in Wilmington for dinner and dancing.
Joe Biden, who was then vice president, personally prepared the home for the event. In an interview with People at the time, he admitted feeling emotional about walking his youngest daughter down the aisle: “I kept telling Ash, we’ve got to open up the church and practice walking up and down the aisle so I can handle it.” Speaking about Krein, he added: “This is the right guy. And he’s getting a helluva woman.”
Krein’s relationship with the Biden family extended beyond the personal sphere. He served on the board of the Biden Cancer Initiative from 2017 to 2019 and, in an unofficial capacity, advised Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign on aspects of its COVID-19 response.
The couple appeared united publicly as recently as 2024, when they stood together alongside family members in the Oval Office as Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election. At the Democratic National Convention the following year, Ashley reflected on her wedding day and her father’s words before walking her down the aisle. “Before he walked me down the aisle, he turned to me and said he would always be my best friend,” she told the audience. “All these years later, Dad, you are still my best friend.” The heartfelt moment moved the president to tears.
The sudden collapse of their marriage now casts those memories in a starkly different light. While the divorce documents do not detail the reasons behind the split, the Instagram posts preceding the filing — particularly the image of a man she identified as her husband holding hands with another woman — have fuelled public speculation.
In the wake of the posts, reactions online have ranged from shock to staunch support for Ashley. Many praised her candidness, while others noted the rarity of such a high-profile political family member making such a direct and personal allegation in a public forum.
For now, the divorce proceedings will unfold away from the cameras, but the events of the past week have ensured that the split between Ashley Biden and Howard Krein will remain a subject of public fascination.
