Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle particulars years of his alcoholism, drug habit and infidelity in new memoir When We Break Up

In her new memoir, If We Break, Kathleen Buehle doesn’t shy away from the ugly side of her 24-year marriage Hunter Biden and the impact it has had on both her own mental health and that of her three daughters, Naomi, Finneganand Maisy.

In the book, Buhle shares that she first realized Hunter’s drinking might be a problem after the birth of her second child in 2001, when he took a job as a partner at a Washington, D.C. lobbying firm, leading to many long nights and long periods away from their home in Delaware. “I’ve watched his drinking spiral from social to problematic,” she writes. “Seeing how much he could consume scared me … For the first time, I didn’t trust my husband.” In the fall of 2003, Hunter entered rehab for the first time and when he came back, the author says, their marriage “felt stronger than ever.” But after seven years of sobriety, Hunter relapsed again only to deny it, forcing Buhle into the permanent role of sobriety detective. “As my suspicions grew, so did Hunter’s defensiveness,” she says. “He made me think I must be crazy, even though I wanted honesty from him. But I didn’t know how to ask about it.”

When Hunter returned home after finally agreeing to a second stint in rehab in 2012, Buhle said she was trying to “start our marriage over again… We didn’t fight, not in the beginning.” We just seemed to be floating. From the outside, everything was as it should be… But inside, at home, we didn’t share.” And in the spring of 2013, she noticed the warning signs that he was drinking again. “I didn’t trust my husband. And he didn’t trust me either, as if my own suspicions about him made me suspicious… At times I even believed that my own skepticism about him was the problem,” she writes, blaming herself for driving her husband has yet further in his addiction.

After Beau Biden was diagnosed with a deadly form of brain cancer, Buhle again watches as her husband’s drinking gets “worse than ever” and finds beer cans and vodka bottles scattered around their home. She begins to lose faith that he can ever stop. “Every time he drank, it took longer and took more effort to get him to admit he wasn’t sober,” she says. “The denials also grew angrier and more bitter. For the first time, Hunter verbally abused me.” And as Beau’s illness worsened, Buhle writes, “Hunter’s drinking was evident in the darkest, most angry way.”

After more than a decade dealing with her husband’s alcoholism, Buhle admits it never occurred to her that Hunter might also be a drug user. Until he confessed in late 2013 that earlier that summer he failed a drug test required to join the Navy and tested positive for cocaine – a drug he completely denies having used. Years later, after Beau’s death, Buhle also uncovered evidence that Hunter smoked crack, found a broken glass pipe in an ashtray at her home after a night of binge drinking, and later discovered a pipe and a small bag filled with a white substance hidden in her car. But there Buhle writes: “After years of thinking it couldn’t get any worse, I had lost the ability to let him surprise me.”

As if dealing with Hunter’s alcoholism and drug addiction wasn’t enough of a challenge for their relationship, Buhle also uncovers evidence of his infidelity years before he was caught cheating on her with his late brother’s wife. Hi. Eventually, after Buhle finds photos on his iPad of a woman dressed in robes in his Paris hotel room, Hunter admits he cheated on her five times over the course of their marriage, claiming that they “were all prostitutes.” All outside the country,” and only when he was drinking. Buhle admits that not only did her involvement with her husband keep her from leaving him, but she was also advised by Hallie that if she left him, she would only regret it, as Hunter will surely move on with someone else would. Buhle’s therapist also told her at the time that “he didn’t think Hunter would be able to lose Beau and I at the same time.” So she decides to stay. But just as the author begins to finally forgive his past indiscretions, Hunter begins to break away from her again and, after Beau’s death, spends more and more time with Hallie and their children. She notices that Hallie is also starting to be colder to her. After years of friendship and family vacations, Buhle writes, “For the first time she seemed really fed up with me. Soon she would not respond to me at all. One of my last messages to her was that I didn’t understand what was happening and felt like I was being punished. I have not heard anything.”