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Key Takeaways
Hunter Biden shared a candid message about his addiction and recovery journey on Instagram, calling it transformative, in a video on Instagram on Monday, June 29
He addressed the 2020 leak of nude photos and personal details, saying vulnerability helped him connect with others
Biden encouraged those struggling with addiction to “hold on,” emphasizing the beauty of recovery and self-discovery
Hunter Biden is speaking candidly about his previous addiction to crack cocaine and the leak of his nude photos.
Biden, 56, posted a video about his journey to sobriety on Instagram on Monday, June 29. “I’m grateful that I was a crack addict,” he said in it while seated and speaking directly to the camera. “And I don’t say that with even the slightest bit of irony or b——t.”
Biden went on to share that his addiction has given him a platform and the ability to reach people going through similar struggles. “It has given me to me right here,” Biden shared.
Biden said “all that addiction took away from me” and the “consequences” of that addiction stripped him of “any sense of me being better than anyone or having to be better than anyone.”
“I get to approach you and you get to see all of me,” Biden said, before adding, “You get to see the nude pictures, you get to see me in grief, you get to see me at my worst, you get to see everything about me. You get to see all of the disgusting pieces of it and all of the beautiful pieces of it and you get to see all of it in wild technicolor.”
Biden was referencing numerous nude images of himself that were leaked in 2020 along with other information from his personal laptop, as PEOPLE previously reported.
In June 2024, Biden stood trial in a federal criminal trial that resulted in a guilty verdict on gun and tax charges after proceedings exposed intimate details of his tumultuous years of doing drugs in secretive motel rooms, and spending time with sex workers.
“Literally completely nude, in the public square,” Biden quipped in his new video, adding that this vulnerability has “broken down every barrier that you could possibly have to find a connection with me.”
“That’s beautiful,” he concluded the video.
“This is what recovery actually looks like,” he wrote in the caption. “Not pretending it didn’t happen, but finding the gratitude in what it taught you.”
In the caption, Biden added that “getting stripped all the way down” was “terrifying.” “But sometimes that’s where you finally meet the realest version of yourself, the one with nothing left to hide behind,” he wrote. “The one that can truly connect.”
He then advised anyone struggling with drug addiction to “hold on” because “we do recover.”
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“And what’s waiting on the other side is something you can’t yet imagine,” Biden concluded in the caption.
The earnest post follows a flurry of recent activity on Biden’s social media. In a string of X posts, he came to his father, former President Joe Biden’s, defense, and cracked jokes about his own path to sobriety following an addiction to crack cocaine, PEOPLE previously reported.
He rejoined X after not posting for years in May, reintroducing himself with a post that read, “I’m Hunter Biden. You’ve never actually heard from me.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
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