NEW YORK (AP) — Jill Biden says she’s sorry she didn’t talk more about her son Hunter’s drug addiction during her time in the White House, explaining that she now realizes that being open about his substance abuse and his recovery can offer hope to others in the same situation.
In a wide-ranging interview with “The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg to promote her White House memoir, the former first lady said Tuesday that she had put life in perspective after her husband, former President Joe Biden, was diagnosed with prostate cancer that spread to his bones.
She said she is no longer angry about the way Democrats pressured her husband to end his reelection bid after performing disastrously in a 2024 debate against Republican Donald Trump.
“No, I’m not angry. I mean, what’s the purpose of anger now?” Jill Biden said at the first event for her book, held at the 92nd Street Y in New York following publication earlier Tuesday.
‘I think we were partly in denial’
Jill Biden wrote in the memoir, “View from the East Wing,” that addiction wasn’t something she and her husband talked about. “I think we were partly in denial,” she acknowledged, adding that she wondered why someone who had a family that loved him, a good education and a lucrative career would turn to drugs.
“It’s hard for me to say this, but Hunter was a drug addict,” she said Tuesday.
She said Hunter’s spiral into addiction was “a really hard time for our family to go through.” Hunter Biden started abusing alcohol and drugs after his older brother, Beau Biden, died in 2015 of an aggressive form of brain cancer. Hunter has now been sober for several years, she said.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t talk about it a little bit more,” she said on stage.
Jill Biden spoke about how proud she is of Hunter for turning his life around, becoming an artist and helping other recovering addicts.
“And I hope that by talking about it more as I go forward I hope that it offers other people hope,” she said. “It is such a tough, tough thing to deal with.”
Hunter Biden wrote about his addiction to drugs and alcohol in a memoir of his own, published in 2021.
His addiction led to federal charges that he lied about his drug use on forms he used to buy a gun. He was convicted after a trial and faced prison time but ultimately received a pardon from his father, who had repeatedly insisted that he wouldn’t use the powers of the presidency to spare his son — until he changed his mind just before turning the office over to Trump, who had talked about exacting “retribution” against those he perceived to be his political enemies.
Fighting cancer has been tough, too
Jill Biden has said she was angry over how the Democratic Party treated her husband after the debate — but has since put that aside after Joe Biden was diagnosed a year ago with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that spread to his bones.
“I think Joe’s cancer diagnosis, it really puts life into perspective and you really do appreciate each and every day and a lot of anger that you have, you think, ‘What’s the point?’ You know, ‘What is the point?’ she said. ”And I think that’s why Joe and I try to, you know, just take each day that comes and try to find the joys.”
The former president, 83, was in the audience for the event, along with many other Biden family members, and received a couple of standing ovations from the packed house.
She said when the doctor told them that her husband of nearly 50 years had a problem, “I never ever thought it was going to be prostate cancer.” She said that type of cancer is one thing, but it becomes “a whole different ballgame” after it attacks the bone.
She didn’t go into the details, but suggested the former president’s cancer treatment is taking a toll on him.
“Joe’s here tonight. You see him. He looks handsome as ever,” she said. “But, you know, cancer drugs, cancer treatments have their consequences and I think those consequences are pretty tough.”
Living in a ‘fishbowl’
Biden, who turns 75 on Wednesday, described some of her favorite memories of life in the White House, including weekends at Camp David and working with military families.
She said the hardest part of the role of first lady, in her experience, is the loss of privacy.
“You really do live in a fishbowl,” she said. “Everybody knows everywhere you are. It’s the truth. I couldn’t even walk downstairs to my office.”
She mimicked how U.S. Secret Service officers would speak into their devices as she walked through the White House, using their code name for her.
“’Capri on elevator. Capri walking down hallway. Capri walking up steps. Capri walking outside,’” Jill Biden said, as the audience laughed. She also cited the scrutiny of her clothes, including one time she was photographed in Washington with her hair pulled into a ponytail by a scrunchie.
’I wore a scrunchie and they wrote about it,” she said. “Who cares?”
