Hunter Biden's 'Ultra-Private' Ex-Wife Finally Opens Up

If the name Kathleen Buhle doesn't ring a bell, perhaps the 53-year-old's former name will: Kathleen Biden. The ex-wife of Hunter Biden is a couple weeks away from releasing If We Break, which Vanity Fair reported in January would mark the first time Buhle spoke publicly about the divorce. Buhle previewed her memoir for People, which calls the book "dignified and revealing." It reports the "ultra-private mom" (her daughters are Naomi, 28; Finnegan, 23; and Maisy, 21) started writing it in 2015 after brain cancer killed Hunter's brother Beau "and things didn't make sense." She details meeting Hunter (sharing an anecdote about how he described himself as middle class, to which she responded, "Hunt, a kid from a middle class family does not have a ballroom"), being in the dark about their finances, and watching his drinking turn "problematic."

After Beau's death, she kicked Hunter out after finding a crack pipe in their home. "From my computer, I watched his every move. There were charges at Lake Tahoe at a nail salon and a charge for two lift tickets. I found a credit card charge for $10,000 at a hot tub store in Los Angeles. I found hundreds at liquor stores and strip clubs. The whole time, he told me he was healthy and sober—and I was crazy." She learned Hunter was having an affair with Beau's widow, Hallie, from her girls: Finnegan asked her to meet her at the family therapist's office, got Naomi on speaker phone, and, crying, asked the therapist to tell her. She was in shock. Finnegan said she learned of it after looking at her dad's phone and reading texts between the two of them.

"I could see Finnegan's face relaxing now that the secret was out and I hadn't fallen apart," says Buhle. "If anything, I felt a strange vindication. Not only had I not been crazy, but it was so much worse than I could have imagined." The two ended their 24-year marriage in 2017. Read the full People story, which details how Buhle was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer just months after splitting from Hunter and shares personal photos of Buhle, Hunter, and their daughters. It also has an image of the book's cover, a photo of Buhle and Hunter that Vanity Fair reported was taken in Nantucket in 2014. (More Hunter Biden stories.)