Former first lady Jill Biden announced she will publish a memoir this summer about her time in the White House, including reflections on the end of her husband Joe Biden’s presidency and his decision not to seek re-election.
In a video posted to Instagram, Biden stated:
I entered the role of first lady in a unique time in our nation’s history, in the midst of a pandemic and the shadow of an insurrection. Those days tested all of us—our resilience, our compassion, and our belief in one another—but we persevered. Serving in the historic East Wing was the honor of my life. View from the East Wing is an account of my time as first lady. Parts of this story have been told, but not all of it.
In View from the East Wing, I share the good moments that lifted me and the difficult ones that challenged me. I also reflect on how this chapter in our lives came to a close when Joe made the unprecedented decision not to seek re-election and pass the torch—what that moment meant for our family and for me personally after years of public service together. View from the East Wing is out on June 2. Let’s set the record straight.”
The Daily Mail wrote on May 8, 2025, that Joe and Jill Biden were considering a $30 million tell-all book deal that could include material from a diary Jill kept during her time in the White House. According to the article, a memoir by Jill could allow her to present the Biden family’s perspective on events, while noting she would likely face questions about Joe Biden’s mental decline, his debate performance against President Donald Trump, and his decision to exit the 2024 race. Publishers would likely seek extensive behind-the-scenes revelations for a major book deal, the piece added.
A later Wall Street Journal report on July 24, 2025, revealed former President Joe Biden sold his own presidential memoir to Hachette Book Group for a $10 million advance. Little, Brown, & Company had not yet set a publication date, and Biden stated he was working hard on the manuscript. The article also noted that Barack and Michelle Obama received about $60 million for their book rights in 2017, while Bill Clinton received $15 million for his 2004 memoir My Life.
In February 2021, Hunter Biden’s memoir Beautiful Things rose to the top of Amazon’s “Chinese Biographies” category within 24 hours of being publicly announced, even though the book was not scheduled for release until April 6. Gallery Books said the memoir centers on Hunter Biden’s struggles with substance abuse. Sales of the book later crashed after just one week despite a relentless public relations push and favorable media coverage. NPD BookScan data showed Beautiful Things sold about 10,000 copies in its first week, and Showbiz411 described it as a “flop after one week.”
Jill Biden’s book also arrives after months of memoirs and public accounts from other figures tied to the Biden administration and the 2024 election cycle. In July 2025, former Vice President Kamala Harris announced her memoir 107 Days, a book about her time on the campaign trail after former President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Harris expressed she wrote the book “with candor and reflection” and remarked there was value in “sharing what I saw, what I learned, and what I know it will take to move forward.”
Excerpts from the memoir later revealed Harris questioning whether she and others should have urged Biden to leave the race sooner. “During all those months of growing panic, should I have told Joe to consider not running? Perhaps,” she wrote, adding that Biden’s age had begun to show in “physical and verbal stumbles,” though she asserted it was not incapacity.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro criticized Harris’s account after reporter Tim Alberta relayed excerpts from her memoir describing her interview with him as a potential running mate. Harris wrote that Shapiro had taken over the conversation and insisted on being “in the room for every decision,” and Alberta recalled questions she said she asked him about the size of the vice president’s Naval Observatory residence and whether Pennsylvania art could be loaned for it. “She wrote that in her book?” Shapiro asked. “That’s complete bullshit. I can tell you that her accounts are just blatant lies.” Shapiro initially argued Harris was “trying to sell books and cover her ass,” before adding, “She’s trying to sell books. Period.”
Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also released a book that drew backlash from former colleagues after she announced she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent. In her memoir, Jean-Pierre wrote that Biden had been mistreated by members of his own party, saying he had been “treated poorly by members of his own party” and calling the situation “horrible.” In October 2025 interviews, Jean-Pierre also defended the former president and claimed she had not seen signs that caused her concern about his mental capacity, stating, “I did not have any concerns.”
The announcement also comes as another first lady-linked project has drawn major attention. Breitbart News reported Wednesday that first lady Melania Trump’s film Melania debuted as the number one movie in the United States on Amazon Prime and became the streaming service’s top entertainment, ranking just behind Young Sherlock on the service’s overall list. The film debuted in theaters nationwide in late January and became the biggest box-office opening for a documentary in over a decade.
