Ahead of the scheduled Tuesday release of his new book Beautiful Struggles: A Memoir, Hunter Biden sat down with CBS Sunday Morning and spoke about his battle with substance abuse, the ongoing FBI investigation into his finances, his business dealing with Ukraine, and more.
During his discussion with correspondent Tracy Smith, President Biden’s son revealed the extent of his drug addiction. “I spent more time on my hands and knees picking through rugs, smoking anything that even remotely resembled crack cocaine. I probably smoked more parmesan cheese than anyone that you know,” he admitted. “I mean, I went one time for 13 days without sleeping, and smoking crack and drinking vodka exclusively throughout that entire time.”
In another sit-down with CBS This Morning co-host Anthony Mason, which airs Monday at 7 a.m. ET on CBS, Hunter opened up about a family intervention that took place at his father’s home in Wilmington ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
“I tried to go to my car. And my girls literally blocked the door to my car. Said, ‘Dad, Dad, please. You can’t. No, no.’ This was the hardest part of the book to write. And my father grabbed me, gave a bear hug, and he just cried and said, ‘I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do,” Hunter recalled.
The president’s son also shared that trauma, specifically the fatal 1972 car crash that killed both his 13-month-old sister Naomi and his mother Neilia, was at the “center of” his substance abuse issues.
“I don’t know why I had such a hard time ever admitting that,” Hunter said on CBS. “We probably should’ve.”
Hunter’s mother was killed after colliding with an oncoming tractor-trailer in Delaware, shortly after her husband became a U.S. senator-elect. Both Hunter and his older bother Beau— who were three and two at the time—were hospitalized for serious injuries.
Hunter’s book, Beautiful Things, hits shelves Tuesday and covers the 51-year-old’s tumultuous personal life, touching on subjects such as his drug and alcohol addiction, the car crash, the struggle living in the shadow of his powerful father, his relationship with Beau, who died of brain cancer in 2015, and more.
