Tragic Details About Hunter Biden's Life
Joe Biden has experienced many heartbreaks and tragedies throughout his life, and so has his only surviving son, Hunter Biden. At just two years old, Hunter and his older brother Beau Biden, then four, became the only survivors of a 1972 car crash that claimed the lives of their mother, Neilia, and 1-year-old sister, Naomi. The brothers didn't come out unscathed, with Beau suffering multiple broken bones and Hunter sustaining a skull fracture and head injuries. During his teenage years, Hunter turned to alcohol and drugs, starting what would become a years-long battle with addiction and a difficult journey to sobriety.
Hunter has suffered many career lows, and his relationship with his stepmother, Dr. Jill Biden, has had ups and downs. Hunter's relationship history has also been tumultuous; from his alleged affairs during his marriage to Kathleen Buhle to his red-flag-riddled marriage to Melissa Cohen, which has been rocked by numerous legal woes. "Most people who've gone through what I've gone through are either dead or in jail," Hunter told "CBS This Morning" in 2021.
However, Hunter believes he was able to pull through and survive thanks to his family's unwavering love and support. "...Their light was never not seeking me out. Never a moment, never a moment that they weren't trying to save me," he said during a 2021 interview with NPR. From the traumatic accident that changed the trajectory of his life to his legal troubles, here are the tragic details about Hunter's life.
Hunter said his addiction stemmed from the trauma of losing his mom at a young age
While his father, Joe Biden, doesn't drink, Hunter Biden has struggled with alcohol and crack cocaine addiction for most of his life. He has sought help multiple times and was able to stay sober for long periods, but several relapses kept him going back to rehab.
While sharing heartbreaking details about his addiction, Hunter told "CBS This Morning" that it got so bad that his family staged an intervention for him. However, he said not even his father embracing him and breaking down in tears could wake him up from the all-consuming haze he was in at the time. "I thought, 'I need to figure out a way to tell him that I'm gonna do something so that I can go take another hit.' It's the only thing I could think. I don't know of a force more powerful than my family's love except addiction," Hunter recalled.
Hunter said his addiction started with a feeling of not belonging, which he believes stemmed from the trauma of losing his mother at an early age. "I think there's a lot of research now that points to the idea that almost all addicts who suffer from addiction have a serious trauma in their lives," he noted. Hunter shared that it wasn't until he met his now-wife Melissa Cohen in 2019 that he got back on the path of sobriety. He recalled admitting to Cohen that he was addicted to cocaine, to which she reportedly replied, "Well, that ends now." He said it felt like it was his last chance to change.
If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
He struggled to cope with the painful loss of his brother Beau Biden
For most of his life, Hunter Biden's most reliable supporters were his dad, Joe Biden, and older brother, Beau Biden. According to his 2019 New Yorker profile, Beau helped him get sober, joining him for his Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. "Beau was an unflagging lodestar for me. We were inseparable, often referred to by a single moniker: BeauAndHunt," Hunter wrote in his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things" (via New York Post). So, when Beau, then a rising star in politics, tragically died from brain cancer at the age of 46 in 2015, Hunter felt adrift. "After Beau died, I never felt more alone. I lost hope," he wrote, per Vanity Fair.
While delivering his eulogy at his brother's funeral, Hunter talked about how Beau had been his biggest protector and supporter for his entire life. "The first memory I have is of lying in a hospital bed next to my brother ... I remember my brother ... holding my hand, staring into my eyes, saying, 'I love you, I love you, I love you' over and over and over again. And in the 42 years since he never stopped holding my hand, he never stopped telling me just how much he loves me," he said (via People). Hunter struggled to cope with the loss and fell off the wagon following Beau's death. During his interview with "CBS This Morning," Hunter admitted he spent the next several years smoking crack and drinking alcohol.
His affair with his brother's widow contributed to the end of his first marriage
In addition to his addiction, Hunter Biden found another destructive way of coping with Beau Biden's death: hooking up with his older brother's widow, Hallie. The relationship raised eyebrows when it was revealed in March 2017. At the time, his dad, Joe Biden, said in a statement to Page Six that he and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, supported them. Hunter and his first wife Kathleen Buhle, with whom he'd been married for 24 years, had already been separated at the time and finalized their divorce the following month.
However, Buhle claimed in her book, "If We Break: A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction, and Healing," that there was an overlap between her marriage to Hunter and his relationship with Hallie. According to Buhle, it had been their daughters Naomi and Finnegan who discovered their dad's affair in 2016 after finding text messages exchanged between Hunter and his brother's widow. Buhle said that the affair, along with Hunter's past infidelities, addictions, and the financial difficulties he caused their family, led to the end of their marriage.
When asked about his brief relationship with Hallie, Hunter explained to "CBS This Morning": "Both of us had gone through the most incredibly painful loss. And it was out of love. And I thought that maybe that love would bring my brother back. And it didn't work." The romance not only ended his marriage but put a strain on his relationship with his daughters.
Hunter faced a lengthy stint in prison for tax and gun charges
By 2024, Hunter Biden had been sober for five years, and his marriage with his wife, Melissa Cohen, appeared to be going strong. However, his actions during the height of his alcohol and cocaine addiction caught up with him. As a result, Joe Biden's 2024 presidential campaign was rocked not only by accusations that he was no longer mentally fit enough to serve as president but also by Hunter's many legal woes. In June 2024, Hunter faced trial for three felony charges stemming from his lying about his drug use on a federal form while purchasing a gun in 2018. He was found guilty on all three counts and faced a maximum of 25 years in prison for the gun charges. At the time, Joe said he would not pardon his son regardless of the outcome of the trial.
Just months after his gun trial, Hunter was due back in court for another case, this time involving federal tax charges. He faced nine tax fraud and evasion counts in Los Angeles for falsifying records and avoiding paying $1.4 million in income tax. However, just before the trial was set to begin that September, Hunter pleaded guilty to all nine charges, which carried a maximum penalty of 17 years in prison and fines of up to $1.3 million.
President Biden later walked back his statement and signed a pardon for Hunter that rendered the verdicts moot. "It is clear that Hunter was treated differently," he said in a White House statement (via the BBC). The decision was used as ammunition against him by Donald Trump, who described the pardon as "an abuse and miscarriage of Justice" on Truth Social.
He was hit with major career blows due to his addiction and legal woes
After graduating from Yale Law School, Hunter Biden took on a series of lucrative positions and projects and co-founded several companies, including investment management firm Rosemont Seneca Partners and lobbying firm Oldaker, Biden & Belair. But despite seemingly never running out of opportunities, Hunter took quite a few hits related to his professional life over the decades. One of the major ones came when he was discharged from the Navy Reserve in early 2014, just a year after he was sworn in at the White House by his dad, Joe Biden, after testing positive for cocaine use. "It was the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge," he said in a statement obtained by ABC News.
In 2020, it emerged that Hunter faced a federal probe over his finances and foreign business endeavors, including with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, whose board he joined as director while his vice president father was overseeing U.S. policy toward Ukraine. While he and Joe were later cleared of the accusations of wrongdoing and corruption, the Republican-led investigation found that he traded on his dad's name during his business dealings.
Perhaps Hunter's biggest career blow happened in 2024 when his license to practice law in Washington, D.C., was suspended. The decision came after Hunter was found guilty of felony gun charges, which Chief Judge Anna Elizabeth Blackburne-Rigsby ruled as "serious crimes" that necessitated suspension. He was not actively working as an attorney at the time of the suspension, and it is unclear if the suspension would be lifted or made permanent following President Biden's pardoning of his son.
Hallie Biden feared Hunter would kill himself amid his addiction
Hunter Biden's headline-making 2024 gun trial made public tragic details about his struggle with cocaine addiction, including his ex-girlfriend Hallie Biden's fears that he would kill himself at one point. Hallie was in a relationship with Hunter in 2018 when he bought the handgun that was at the center of his case. While testifying during the trial, Hallie, who claimed she became addicted to cocaine after she dated Hunter, said she discovered a .38 caliber Colt Cobra revolver and bullets in Hunter's car while she was cleaning it. She added that she took the gun, placed it inside a shopping bag, and dumped it in a garbage can. "I didn't want him to hurt himself or the kids to find it and hurt themselves," she explained to the court, per the BBC.
The move came not long after Hunter allegedly made a disturbing comment to a friend referencing his brother Beau Biden's death. "I know you all think the wrong brother died," he said, according to The New York Times. However, Hunter, who had just finished a two-month stay at a rehab facility, reportedly told pals that the gun had been an unplanned purchase and that he only thought of using it at a shooting range as a way to stay sober.
While he eventually managed to get and stay sober after meeting Melissa Cohen, Hunter confessed to NPR that the battle with addiction is never truly over, saying: "I have a healthy fear of relapse. It's too much a part of my story. I'm only one choice away from being back exactly where I was." He added that the same goes for everyone in recovery from addiction.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.