Meet America's next first family: Joe Biden's clan includes four children and seven grandchildren

Biden, 77 is set to become the 46th President of the United States

“Pop, Pop! We won!”

That was the happy cry from Joe Biden’s grandchildren when they discovered their grandfather had won the US presidential election.

The emotional group hug that followed was captured in a photo snapped by granddaughter Naomi Biden, 27, which quickly went viral.

The story of America’s next first family is a large – and complex – one, encompassing four children, seven grandchildren, divorce drama, untimely deaths and some scandal.

For president-elect Biden, 77, the centre of his family is his wife of 43 years, Dr Jill Biden, of whom he wrote in his 2007 memoir, Promises to Keep: "She made me start to think my family might be whole again."

Having suffered through the death of his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, who died in a car crash in 1972 along with their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, Biden also buried his son, Beau, in 2015 after he passed away from brain cancer at age 46.

And it is these experiences, of both tragedy and triumph, that friends and family say have shaped him, making him an empathic choice as the 46th President of the United States.

"People don't care what you know until they know that you care," Biden's sister, Valerie Biden Owens, told People. "And because Joe has tasted tragedy as well as triumph, as he has walked the walk, people respond to him. And there's comfort in knowing that somebody else gets it."

Click through the gallery above to see the members of Biden’s close inner-family circle.

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