Hunter Biden told Candace Owens during a podcast interview that he was a “crack addict,” saying he has been sober since June 1, 2019. He described public exposure of his private life—down to leaked texts and photos—as the moment that forced him into recovery,
Hunter Biden didn’t soften his words when the conversation turned to addiction.
On a podcast interview with Candace Owens. he admitted he was a “crack addict. ” explaining that years of substance abuse. public scrutiny. and the fallout from his private life pushed him toward sobriety. “I’ve heard you call me a crack head many times. And the truth of the matter is, I was a crack head,” Biden said.
Biden tied his recovery to a specific turning point: the moment his digital life became public. He said he had been forced to watch a stolen digital footprint unfold in real time—“every text message, every picture, all of the things you’d be ashamed of became front page news.”
He described the shame and exposure not as something that merely followed him, but as the pressure that made action unavoidable. “It forced me into a choice, and the choice was do I get out of bed and live or do I die?” he said. “And I chose to live.”
In the same exchange, Biden said maintaining sobriety in that kind of pressure cooker is often what triggers people. But he said something broke—and then something changed. “But something broke me in a good way, which was, I no longer have any fear.”
Biden also spoke about the personal cost addiction took on his relationships and decision-making. “I’ve done horrible things in my addiction in terms of what I did in terms of my relationships and decisions that I made. ” he told Owens. “More than anything is just removing myself from being present for the people that love me.”.
The question of what the public exposure did to him came up again later. Biden said the attention didn’t destroy him—it forced him into recovery. “What happened to me… is that the exposure, not piecemeal, but the total exposure, my digital footprint stolen from me… became front page news,” he said.
Owens later pressed Biden on the discovery of cocaine at the White House in 2023 during Joe Biden’s presidency. Biden denied the drugs belonged to him. pointing to where the cocaine was found and emphasizing that he was not using. “After six years of this, I’ve been sober since June 1st of 2019,” he said.
Biden added that the cocaine was discovered near the visitors’ entrance—an area he said he was not using. “I wasn’t even [at the White House] where that cocaine was found, you know the visitor’s entrance, [that’s where it was found],” he said.
Owens responded, “You prefer crack anyways!” Biden replied that he would not have “forgotten it in a cubby to go into the Situation Room, which I’ve never been in before.”
The interview also revisited the personal rupture behind Biden’s darkest stretch. He discussed the collapse of his marriage to Kathleen Buhle, whom he married in 1993. The couple were together for 24 years and had three daughters before divorcing in 2017.
Biden described the end of the marriage as the start of a spiral. “It just started a really, really dark cycle,” he said.
He said his late brother, Beau, urged him to stop. “My brother called me and said, ‘This has got to stop.’ It forced me into a choice. The choice was: Do I get out of bed and live, or do I die?” Biden said.
Later, he quoted The Acts of John: “You must learn to suffer as I do, in order to be able not to suffer. And that is the greatest lesson of everything.”
Biden’s family life has also evolved since then. He had a daughter, Navy Joan Roberts, with Lunden Roberts, and later married filmmaker Melissa Cohen in May 2019. The couple has a son together.
His legal history remains part of the public record too: Hunter Biden was convicted of federal gun possession and tax evasion but received a presidential pardon.
Hunter Biden Candace Owens crack addict sobriety June 1 2019 podcast interview White House cocaine incident Kathleen Buhle Beau Biden Melissa Cohen Navy Joan Roberts Lunden Roberts