Kathleen Buhle, the ex-wife of Hunter Biden, has revealed in a new book how she learned of her spouse’s affair: from her children.
Hunter Biden, the younger son of President Joe Biden, spent years gripped by addiction to drugs and alcohol. During that time, he has admitted, he had an extramarital affair with the widow of his brother, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015.
In her upcoming book, If We Break: A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction, and Healing, Ms Buhle recalls the painful moment she learned of the affair. After Beau’s death, she writes, Hunter collaborated with his sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, to start a charity in Beau’s honor. Before long, something seemed amiss.
“After the funeral, I saw a purpose in Hunter’s work to set up the Beau Biden Foundation with Hallie and his parents,” Ms Buhle writes in an excerpt obtained by People. “But he started spending most of his time at Hallie’s house.”
According to Ms Buhle, her family’s therapist, Debbie, defended Hunter’s absences.
“Our therapist told me Hunter needed to be up there, helping Hallie,” Ms Buhle recalls. “‘But what about his sobriety?’ I asked her. ‘He needs routine. He needs to be home with us.’ [The therapist] held firm that being with Hallie and her kids was an important part of Hunter’s grieving.”
In the summer of 2015, Ms Buhle says, she found a crackpipe in an ashtray and knew Hunter had relapsed. She threw him out of the house, and he moved into an apartment. Then, in the fall of 2016, there was more bad news.
“Mom, I need to talk to you,” Ms Buhle’s daughter, Finnegan, told her tearfully over the phone. “I’m at Debbie’s.”
Ms Buhle raced to the therapist’s house, where she found Finnegan curled up in a chair, weeping. Finnegan’s sister, Naomi, was also on speakerphone, but neither daughter could bear to tell their mother what they knew. Finally, Debbie spoke up.
“Kathleen, Hunter’s having an affair with Hallie,” the therapist said.
Ms Buhle stood in stunned silence for a moment. As she recalls in the book, she was “shocked, but not heartbroken”.
“I could see Finnegan’s face relaxing now that the secret was out and I hadn’t fallen apart,” she writes. “If anything, I felt a strange vindication. Not only had I not been crazy, but it was so much worse than I could have imagined.”
Then Debbie, who had previously defended Hunter’s time with Hallie, gave Ms Buhle an order.
“From now on, Kathleen, no more secrets,” the therapist said. “I told the girls that from this day forward, you will tell them the whole truth.”
The command appealed to Ms Buhle.
“No more secrets,” she remembers thinking to herself. “The idea was a relief.”
If We Break will be published on 14 June.
