Baby Biden gives SA key to White House
If Joe Biden wins the US presidency next month, the White House will have a direct connection with SA in the form of a baby born in March to a SA-born woman who married Biden’s son, Hunter.
On March 28, Hunter and his wife, filmmaker Melissa Cohen, welcomed their son into the world. The couple reportedly married on May 16 last year at Cohen’s Hollywood apartment. The marriage was attended by only one of her friends.
Cohen’s parents, Lee and Zoe, live in Johannesburg. They did not attend the wedding. Hunter’s father Joe and his wife, Jill, also did not attend. Hunter’s mother, Neilia, died in a car crash in 1972 when he was two years old.
Hunter, 50, and Cohen, 33, married just 10 days after being introduced by mutual friends.
Cohen grew up in Johannesburg and attended King David High School in Victory Park.
Her brother Garyn Cohen, a podiatrist, said this week the family did not want to comment.
A receptionist at his rooms said she would pass on a message seeking comment but that neither Cohen nor his parents would speak to the media.
However, in an interview with the South African Jewish Report last year, Garyn said his sister was “a really good person who loves helping people”.
She had always been “a champion for nature conservation and the environment, as well as the underprivileged and people from all walks of life. She is truly remarkable, intelligent, and has a special neshoma [soul].”
Melissa, who is known as Missy or Mel to family and friends, has been described as an environmentalist and anti-poaching campaigner.
According to an interview the couple gave