Hunter Biden, the second son of 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden, got married in secret to a South African woman last month.
Biden, 49, married Melissa Cohen on May 19 in Los Angeles by a minister in charge of an instant marriage company, according to TMZ. It is unclear who among the family was in attendance, including Joe Biden, who is the front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
The sister of the former vice president, Valerie Owens, confirmed that a wedding took place, saying, “Yes. That’s true.”
Joe Biden, who had his official campaign kickoff in Philadelphia on May 18, had no public events scheduled for the day of the wedding. The Washington Examiner contacted the Biden campaign to confirm whether he was in California that day.
This was Hunter Biden’s second marriage. He was previously married to Kathleen Biden for 23 years.
Sources told Page Six that Melissa Cohen is herself a divorcee who lives in Los Angeles. Her mother, Zoe Cohen, told the Washington Post that her daughter is “a very special girl” and she and Hunter are “very happy.”
Public records show Cohen split from her first husband in 2014 and is the co-owner of a Los Angeles business called Tribal Worlds which promotes “indigenous conservation.”
The wedding took place three weeks after it was reported that Hunter Biden broke up with Hallie Biden, the widow of his late brother Beau. They started dating in 2017 after Beau Biden died from brain cancer in 2015, and it is unclear when exactly the breakup happened.
Hunter Biden’s relationship with Hallie Biden began while he was still married to his first wife Kathleen Biden, with whom he had three children.
In the D.C. Court divorce filing, Kathleen Biden cited irreconcilable differences due to how he spent “extravagantly on his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations), while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.”
Hunter has been repeatedly been linked to drugs over the years.
Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve, where he had been working as a public affairs officer, in 2014 after he tested positive for cocaine.
Last month, it was revealed that a police report said Hunter returned a rental car in Arizona that contained a cocaine pipe days before the 2016 presidential election. In addition to “a small white and brown pipe approximately 3-4 inches long,” an officer also found “a small ziplock bag with a white powdery substance inside all sitting on the passenger seat.” Fingerprints were not found on the pipe, which officials determined was used to smoke cocaine. Prescott Police Department officials were unable to reach Hunter Biden and, after an investigation, declined to prosecute.
In response to Kathleen’s filing, Hunter’s lawyers demanded that she furnish any letters, emails, or other messages “between you and any person that you had a romantic or sexual relationship with other than your husband during the marriage.”
After the filing became public, Hunter Biden acknowledged that he had become involved with Hallie Biden, the widow of his brother Beau. It is unclear when that relationship began. Beau Biden, the former attorney general for the Bidens’ home state of Delaware, died of brain cancer in 2015 at the age of 46.
Hunter Biden said at the time, “Hallie and I are incredibly lucky to have found the love and support we have for each other” and that “family and friends … have supported us every step of the way.”
In response to a Vanity Fair inquiry about his affair, Hunter Biden said: “What you fail to realize, in asking such a question, is that my father has always been proud of me — whether when I was volunteering for the Jesuits, or working as a lawyer. And he remains proud of me today. He loves me. And he loves the American people far too much to let any form of adversity stand in the way of service.”
Joe Biden issued a statement backing his son. “We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. They have mine and Jill’s full and complete support, and we are happy for them,” he said.
Hunter Biden told Vanity Fair that his father would not let the controversy be a factor in whether he decided to officially seek the presidency again. “[H]e remains proud of me today. He loves me. And he loves the American people far too much to let any form of adversity stand in the way of service,” he said.
