Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, is the twice-married father of three daughters, one who is close friends with Sasha Obama. His family story has been punctuated by tragedy, starting with the childhood car accident that killed his mother and sister, wounding Hunter and his brother, Beau.
Then, years later, Beau, who was a military veteran and the attorney general of Delaware, died from brain cancer. Hunter’s relationships have also provoked controversy; after Beau’s death, he dated his brother’s widow for a time and was also accused in a paternity suit by a former college student in Arkansas. The life of Hunter Biden, his foreign business entanglements especially, has been fodder for President Donald Trump on the campaign trail after it was revealed that Trump suggested the Ukrainian president investigate Hunter and Joe Biden over Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine.
Hunter was brought into Trump’s conversation with the president of Ukraine in a call that has, in part, led Democrats to move toward impeachment. A whistleblower’s report into that call has now been declassified.
Hunter Biden, 49, is appearing for an interview on ABC News on October 15, 2019. Hunter gave the interview to Amy Robach at his Los Angeles home.
Here’s what you need to know about Hunter Biden’s family:
1. Hunter’s Mom & Sister Died in a Tragic Car Crash While He Was in the Vehicle
Getty/TwitterNeilia Hunter Biden (r) was the first wife of Joe Biden.
Hunter was a young boy when his mom and sister died in a terrible car crash. Hunter and his brother Beau were also in the vehicle and were injured. It’s a core part of Joe Biden’s life story – the trauma and the survival in its aftermath. Certainly, what happened to the Biden family on that awful day was life-changing for his two sons also.
Hunter’s full name is actually Robert Hunter Biden. He was born on February 4, 1970. Hunter has spoken about the family’s tragedies and underscored the important role his dad has played in his life. Neilia Hunter Biden, died at age 30 with daughter Naomi, 1, in a car crash in 1972. At the time of the crash, Joe Biden had just been elected to the U.S. Senate in Delaware. (Hunter would later name his daughter after his lost sister.)
According to Politico, the Biden vehicle was struck by a truck carrying corncobs as they traveled to pick out a Christmas tree.
Hunter suffered a head injury, The New Yorker reported, adding that Joe Biden was sworn in as Delaware’s Senator from the hospital room of his two young sons.
Hunter Biden told Vanity Fair in a lengthy statement, “The important aspect of my complicated divorce (like all divorces) and an equally complicated life, marked by the tragic loss of my mother, sister and brother is this: My father has been a constant source of love and strength in my life. Even though my life has been played out in the media, because I am a Biden, my father never once suggested that the family’s public profile should be my priority. The priority has always been clear for my dad, as it is, now, for me: Never run from a struggle.”
2. Hunter Lost His Brother Beau Biden to Brain Cancer But Dated Beau’s Widow
The late Beau Biden and his wife, Hallie, in 2010.
Hunter once told The New Yorker of his closeness to brother Beau: “Beau and I have been there since we were carried in baskets during his first campaign. We went everywhere with him. At every single major event and every small event that had to do with his political career, I was there.”
Tragedy would strike again when Beau, only 46, died of brain cancer in 2015. “It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life,” Joe Biden said.
Beau was survived by his wife, Hallie, and the couple’s two children, Natalie and Hunter. But that wasn’t the end of the story. It was later revealed, after Beau’s death, that Hunter had started dating Hallie, his brother’s widow.
Joe Biden released a statement saying he and Jill supported the match. In 2017, Joe Biden told Page Six, “We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. They have [our] full and complete support and we are happy for them.”
Hunter told Page Six, “Hallie and I are incredibly lucky to have found the love and support we have for each other in such a difficult time, and that’s been obvious to the people who love us most. We’ve been so lucky to have family and friends who have supported us every step of the way.”
He told the New Yorker: “We were sharing a very specific grief. I started to think of Hallie as the only person in my life who understood my loss.”
But the pair would eventually split up, and Hunter is now married to another woman. Hunter told the New Yorker of the breakup, “All we got was sh*t from everybody, all the time. It was really hard. And I realized that I’m not helping anybody by sticking around.”
3. Hunter Biden, Who Is Remarried to a Woman He Knew Briefly, Was Embroiled in a High-Conflict Divorce With Ex Wife Kathleen Biden
FacebookHunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen.
Hunter Biden’s first wife was named Kathleen Biden. When they split, it got very ugly. A 2019 Vanity Fair profile on him said his estranged first wife Kathleen Biden claimed in divorce papers that Hunter had allegedly “blown money on prostitutes, strip clubs, and drugs,” but the magazine noted that “the split was settled without the allegations being litigated.”
Kathleen accused Hunter of “spending extravagantly on his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations), while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills,” according to The Associated Press.
According to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Hunter’s name and email address showed up as a customer of Ashley Madison, a controversial website that facilitates people looking to cheat on their partners. He denied the account belonged to him, the newspaper reported, but, Kathleen separated from him later that year. By 2017 the couple was divorced. The couple eventually settled their grievances.
Hunter is now remarried to a woman from South Africa named Melissa Cohen. According to Page Six, they married 10 days after they met.
Hunter and Melissa were married on May 16 in Los Angeles. According to TMZ, the wedding was conducted by a “minister who runs an instant marriage company,” and Joe Biden was not present.
4. Hunter Biden Has Three Daughters & Was Named in a Paternity Suit
Arkansas State University/GettyLunden Roberts says Hunter Biden is the father of her child in a paternity suit.
Hunter Biden has three children with his first wife Kathleen. They are named Naomi, Finnegan and Maisy. Does he have a fourth child? That’s the subject of a paternity suit. The daughters are now adults. According to Page Six, in June 2019, Naomi was 24, Finnegan was 19, and Maisy was 18. The daughters were in Washington D.C. watching their aunt Ashley Biden be honored for her design work as news broke of their dad’s new marriage, according to Page Six.
At a campaign appearance Joe Biden held hands with his granddaughter Finnegan and described what it’s like to raise a girl, saying, “When your daughter’s about 12 and half years old you put this little butterfly in bed and you kiss it goodnight. Next morning you walk in and there’s a snake in the bed.”
Maisy Biden is close friends with Sasha Obama, Barack and Michelle Obama’s youngest daughter. The Obamas and Bidens threw a joint graduation party for the girls when they graduated from a private DC school, Sidwell Friends School.
Hola! reported that Maisy and Sasha have even vacationed together in Miami. They played basketball together in high school, according to The Chicago Tribune, which quoted Joe Biden as saying of Maisy, “Maisy’s a real athlete, I mean for real.”
Sasha Obama, Biden’s granddaughter Maisy forge friendship http://t.co/sb3aNZ0cny http://t.co/pJzADXFMng
Naomi Biden also has a famous friend; she was photographed hanging out with Donald Trump’s daughter Tiffany in the Hamptons. According to Metro, Tiffany and Naomi Tiffany and Naomi “became friends at the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 2016.”
Naomi Biden’s Facebook page says she’s a student at Columbia Law School and lives in New York.
Hunter Biden was recently hit with a child support petition from 28-year-old Lunden Alexis Roberts, who claims she gave birth to his child in August 2018. The suit was filed in Arkansas. “The parties were in a relationship and a child, Baby Doe … was born as a result of that relationship,” the lawsuit says, according to Page Six. Hunter denies Roberts’ allegations.
Arkansas CourtsLunden Roberts filed a paternity and child support lawsuit against Hunter Biden.
Roberts’ lawyer told The Arkansas Democrat Gazette: “She really does not want this to be a media spectacle. She does not want this to affect Joe Biden’s campaign. She just wants this baby to get financial support from the baby’s father.” Lunden Alexis Roberts was a star high school athlete in Batesville, Arkansas. She went to college and ended up in Washington D.C. for a time doing graduate work. Her father owns a gun works shop.
He’s now agreed to take a DNA test to establish paternity in the latter case, according to Arkansas Times.
5. Hunter Biden Came to Regard Jill Biden as a Mother Figure
Jill Biden
Hunter and Beau gained a mother figure when Joe married Jill Tracy Jacobs Biden, an English teacher he met on a blind date in 1977.
Joe’s children with Neilia became very close to Jill. “My mom came along — I have two moms now — who came along in 1977 and rebuilt our family, and helped my dad rebuild our family,” Beau Biden told CNN in 2012 of Jill Biden. “She’s an incredible mother.”
Joe and Jill Biden also have a daughter named Ashley Biden, who is Hunter’s half sister.
When they married, Joe’s sons Hunter and Beau, from his first tragic marriage, stood at the altar with their dad. “The way they thought of it, the four of us were getting married,” Joe recalled in his book.
Joe and Jill married on June 17, 1977 at the United Nations chapel in New York City.
“She gave me back my life,” Joe Biden said in his 2007 book Promises to Keep. “She made me start to think my family might be whole again.”
Jill Biden wrote an article for Time Magazine in which she described the moment Joe Biden proposed to her – at least one the first time. He would try several more times before he got her to say yes. Joe Biden had some powerful cheerleaders in his corner: His two sons with his tragic first wife. “But unbeknownst to me, Joe wasn’t just asking on his own accord. Beau and Hunter had recently cornered him in the bathroom one morning while he was shaving. ‘Beau thinks we should get married,’” Jill wrote. “‘We think we should marry Jill.’”
Jill has embraced motherhood with gusto, and she wrote recently on Instagram, “I’ve had many titles over the years, but my forever favorite is “Mom.” Beau and Hunt—the boys who made me their mother. And Ashley—the daughter who completed our family.”
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