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Joe Biden tells the tale of proposing 5 times to wife Jill

The president shared the sweet story of how he finally received a yes from his wife after multiple marriage proposals.

President Joe Biden was nothing if not persistent when it came to marrying first lady Jill Biden.

While it might have been love at first sight for the president, it took five proposals before he received a yes from his wife of 45 years. The president shared the story alongside his wife in an interview on "The Drew Barrymore Show" that will air in full on Dec. 19.

"My brother set us up on a blind date, and when I went out with her the first time, I knew that this was the woman, I really did," the president told the TV host.

"I had to ask her five times, and the fifth time, I was in South Africa, trying to see Nelson Mandela," Biden says in a clip of the interview.

"I came back, got off the plane in Philadelphia, drove straight to her apartment, knocked on the door and (she) said, ‘Oh Joe, come on in.’ I said no. I said, ‘You got my Irish up.' And I said, 'I’m asking you one more time.' I said, 'You don’t have to say when, but if. If you say no, I understand, and that’s it.

"I looked at her and said, ‘Will you marry me?’ She goes, ‘OK.’ Swear to God."

At the time, Biden was a single father of two sons. His first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, died in 1972 in a car accident that also killed their 1-year-old daughter, Naomi.

Joe, Jill Biden
Joe Biden, shown here with first lady Jill Biden in 1988, proposed to her five times before she said yes. Pam Price / AP

His sons Hunter, 52, and the late Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer at 46 in 2015, were a driving force in the proposal.

He recounted to Barrymore how they approached him when they were 6 and 7 years old.

"I said, ‘What’s the matter, guys?’" Biden said. "Beau finally said, ‘Dad, we were talking. We think we should marry Jill.'"

Jill Biden had developed a close relationship with the boys, who had both been critically injured in the car wreck that claimed their mother and sister's lives.

"Later after it was all over, I call my sister, I said, 'What made her change her mind?'" Biden said about his fifth wedding proposal. "She told me (Jill) fell in love with the boys."

President Biden hosts Kennedy Center Honorees At The White House
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden have been married since 1977. Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images

Biden was admittedly smitten from the first time he met the former Jill Jacobs in 1975.

"Only twice in my life have I ever fallen in love, and both times I knew immediately," he said. "I'm not joking. I know that sounds bizarre."

However, he had some trepidation.

"I once asked her, when she finally agreed to marry me, 'How can you marry me knowing how much I loved my first wife?'" Biden said. "She said, 'If you love that deeply, you can love that way again.'"

The first lady spoke to Vogue in 2016 about her first impressions of her husband and why it took so long for her to accept his wedding proposal. Biden, 80, is nine years older than Jill, 71, which also was a factor.

“I said, ‘Not yet. Not yet. Not yet,’” she said. “Because by that time, of course, I had fallen in love with the boys, and I really felt that this marriage had to work. Because they had lost their mom, and I couldn’t have them lose another mother. So I had to be 100 percent sure.”