US President Joe Biden opens up about his troubled son Hunter’s drug problem

In a new interview, the US President has revealed his deep pain over his controversial son’s battle with drug addiction.

An emotional US President Joe Biden fought back tears as he discussed his controversial son Hunter’s drug addiction and recovery.

“My boy’s back,” Mr Biden said.

In a traditional Super Bowl Sunday interview from the White House, Mr Biden opened up about his troubled youngest son, who is currently promoting his autobiography.

US President Joe Biden hugs his son Hunter Biden and US First Lady Dr Jill Biden after being sworn in as the 46th US President. Picture: AFP

“The honesty with which he stepped forward and talked about the problem. And the hope that… it gave me hope reading it,” Mr Biden told CBS.

Lawyer and businessman Hunter Biden, 50, has courted scandal for the past decade and was discharged from the Navy Reserve in 2014 after failing a drug test.

President Joe Biden hugs his son Hunter Biden. Picture: AFP

Revelations about his questionable dealings with businesses in Ukraine, China and Russia while his father was vice president to Barack Obama last year threatened to up-end Mr Biden’s presidential campaign.

A trove of material recovered from a laptop toward the end of the 2020 election race and published by The New York Post, shed new light on those business deals and led to accusations he was selling access to his powerful father.

Hunter Biden (right) hands the bible to his father Joe Biden and US First Lady Dr Jill Biden at the Presidential Inauguration. Picture: AFP

Photos on the laptop also apparently further documented his substance abuse issues.

But Mr Biden said his family’s issues were shared by millions of others.

“You know, I’ll bet there’s not a family you know that doesn’t have somebody in the family that had a drug problem or an alcohol problem,” he said.

“I’m sorry to get so personal.”

Hunter Biden’s book, Beautiful Things, will be published in April but an excerpt released last week discussed the losses his family has suffered.

President Biden lost his wife and one-year-old daughter in a car accident in 1972. His eldest son Beau Biden died from brain cancer in 2015.

Hunter Biden wipes a tear as his sister Ashley delivers the eulogy for their late brother Beau Biden in 2015. Picture: AFP

On Inauguration Day last month, Mr Biden paid tribute to his late son, saying his absence from watching his father being sworn in was his “one regret”.

“I only have one regret...that he’s not here,” Mr Biden said.

“We should be introducing him as president.”

Hunter Biden writes in his memoir: “I come from a family forged by tragedies and bound by a remarkable, unbreakable love.”

Accused of again profiting off the Biden name after reportedly receiving an $A2.6 million advance for the book, the Bidens last week defended Biden Jnr’s book as a personal endeavour.

Hunter Biden. Picture: Getty

“We admire our son Hunter’s strength and courage to talk openly about his addiction so that others might see themselves in his journey and find hope,” Mr Biden and wife Jill said in a statement.

“This is a personal book about his personal struggle.”