Kimberley Mannion
THE American president and his wife have been gracing the palaces and matching up with Spanish royalty as world leaders unite in Madrid for the NATO summit.
But it didn’t all go to plan when America’s First Lady, Jill Biden, kept Queen Letizia waiting outside a Ukrainian refugee centre.
Not used to waiting, the Queen touched her hair and looked at the sky, opening her arms as though to say ‘finally’ when her new friend arrived at last.
Despite the American’s faux pas of making the Queen wait, the pair have had a busy and successful two days, which included a trip to the Spanish Association Against Cancer.
The fight against cancer is one close to the Biden couple’s hearts since they lost their son Beau to brain cancer in 2015.
Jill was touring Madrid for a couple of days as her husband finished up the G7 summit in Germany, before joining her in the Spanish capital at 15:30 on Tuesday afternoon.
The leader of the free world has his own date with royalty today, meeting King Felipe VI along with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Joe and Jill will then head off to the NATO dinner together to dine with the rest of the world’s power couples.
The First Lady was not on her own as she waited on the President’s arrival, having brought two of the couple’s granddaughters to join her for the trip to Spain.
While Jill went to the Palace to see Letizia, her two grown up granddaughters, Maisy and Finnegan, went to the US embassy to meet the ambassador.
Talking to the Queen, Jill revealed that the three had “stayed up late and had a glass of wine” the night before at the Intercontinental Hotel where they were staying.
As the NATO conference unfolds from Tuesday, June 28 to Thursday, June 30, Jill will follow the agenda for spouses, which includes visits to Madrid’s famous Prado and Reina Sofia museums.
The presidential couple will jet back across the Atlantic to Washington DC when the summit ends on Thursday.
Joe Biden is the tenth US president to visit Spain, with the last having been President Barack Obama’s visit in 2016.
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