Hunter Biden is looking back at late brother Beau Biden’s efforts to help him get sober before his death in 2015.
“For me, it became so many promises made, so many promises broken around alcohol that I was just like, ‘Hey, let’s do something about this for real,’” Hunter, 56, said during the Monday, June 15, episode of Dax Shepard’s “Armchair Expert” podcast while recalling what led him to seek treatment for his alcohol addiction.
Hunter — the son of former president Joe Biden and stepson of Jill Biden — shared that he entered the Crossroads addiction recovery center in Antigua in 2003, where he was introduced to the 12-step program. After his stay at the center was complete, Beau picked him up and brought him to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, where he found a sponsor for Hunter.
“He went to the meeting with me. He goes up to this guy and says, ‘Hey, do you sponsor people? … And [the man] goes, ‘Yeah, of course.’ He goes, ‘I’m going to introduce you to my brother.’ And I got my sponsor. I stayed clean and sober,” Hunter recalled.
Hunter, who has been open about his decades-long struggle with his addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine, then shared that he relapsed in 2010 while returning home from a business trip in Europe. After another year of battling his addiction, Beau told Hunter it was time to return to the recovery center in Antigua.
“I don’t have any guilt about how much my brother adored me. He wasn’t like, ‘Oh God, I got to go get Hunter.’ He was like, ‘What the f***? You’ve been trying so hard. Let’s get you back, man. You’re doing great,’” Hunter recalled, noting that Beau promised to attend meetings with him when his younger brother returned home.
Amid another relapse in 2014, Beau was diagnosed with glioblastoma, the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer. He died at age 46 in May 2015. Hunter admitted that he was hit hard by his brother’s death, noting that he had always had nightmares as a child about Beau dying.
“Immediately after Beau died, my marriage fell apart,” Hunter, who was married to Kathleen Buhle from 1993 to 2017, continued. “I mean, immediately after. … I attempted to go back to rehab, I stayed in, I had a sober coach, everybody was afraid that I was going to kill myself. And that all fell apart within a year.”
Hunter spent the next few years in and out of rehab centers before he ultimately became clean and sober in 2019. He married wife Melissa Cohen that year. The couple share a 6-year-old son, whom they named after Beau. (Hunter is also a father to daughter Naomi, 32, and son Finnegan, 23, with Buhle, 57, as well as daughter Navy, 7, with Lunden Roberts.)
Elsewhere in the interview, Hunter recalled the tragic car accident that killed his mom, Neilia Biden, and sister, Naomi, who was 13 months old. (Hunter and Beau were also involved in the crash and sustained serious injuries. They were nearly 3 and 4 years old at the time, respectively.)
“I used to deny myself the idea that the accident and the trauma of it and the loss of my mother and my sister being in the car, all of that had any impact on anything in my life. I was so surrounded by love in the immediate aftermath of that,” Hunter recalled of the support he received from family members after the crash.
Hunter and Beau also grew even closer after the accident.
“We were inseparable and we fought like brothers fight. But no one else could fight my brother without me, or somebody do something to me without my brother standing in the way,” Hunter shared, later adding, “He was the constant presence in my life in only the most beautiful way that I can articulate.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org.
