Hunter Biden has revealed that he is considering writing a sequel to his autobiography, despite the heavily-promoted book only selling 10,600 copies in its first week.
Biden’s memoir, Beautiful Things, went on sale on April 6, with the 51-year-old paid what some believe could be a $2 million advance.
Despite a media blitz, with appearances on CBS, Jimmy Kimmel, CNN and the BBC, the book was not a hit – ranking 12th in its first week in the non-fiction hardcover list category.
Yet Biden said he was considering a sequel.
Speaking to The Telegraph’s Bryony Gordon, for the Mad World podcast, Biden was asked about how his wife Melissa Cohen, a South African filmmaker, had saved him.
Hunter Biden is pictured with his wife Melissa, a South African film maker
Hunter and Melissa (left), with baby Beau, and Hunter’s father Joe Biden on March 26
Biden met Cohen in Los Angeles in May 2019, and told her he was a crack addict. She replied that he wasn’t any more, and then took him home to get him clean.
‘That’s book two,’ he said.
‘That’s where the book ends, but the one thing I really do feel almost an obligation to speak about or write about in the future is where the real hard work begins.’
Hunter Biden has admitted to blowing thousands of dollars on drugs and prostitutes
Biden and Cohen married immediately: not even a week had passed from the day they met when Biden asked her to be his wife. The ceremony was held a day later.
‘I got incredibly lucky,’ Biden said.
‘I grabbed hold in that instant, in that chance, in that moment of a life raft, of someone to save me.
‘The real hard work – not just for the addict, but even more the person who is caring for them.’
Biden said that Cohen confiscated his wallet, car keys and even his clothes so he could not escape and buy drugs.
He said he was incredibly grateful to her for doing so.
‘You had to have someone there who was willing to make sure 24/7 you would not give in to those urges,’ he said.
‘That was a full-time job, and I’m forever grateful that she was willing to do that hard work.’
Hunter Biden’s laptop, left behind in a Delaware repair shop, contained thousands of pictures
Biden told Gordon that he was in a very good place mentally, describing how he wakes at 6am to look in on their son Beau, named after his late brother, and to paint.
He said he wrote the book to tell others who are struggling: ‘you’re not unique, you’re not alone.’
He admitted, however, that his situation was surreal, as the son of the vice president, now president.
Asked how it felt to have Donald Trump use his addiction as a weapon during the election, and try to stop his father becoming president, Hunter Biden said it was an ineffective tool.
Joe Biden with his son Hunter, seen in January 2009
Hunter’s business dealings, particularly in Ukraine, where he sat on the board of a gas company for $50,000 a month while his father was vice president, raised eyebrows.
Some accused Joe Biden of corruption, although he always insisted he had no idea what his son was up to.
Last week it emerged that Hunter still has a stake in a Chinese private equity firm, according to a report – despite a campaign pledge that neither he nor his family would maintain any foreign business interests.
Hunter retains a 10 per cent in the Bohai Harvest RST Equity Investment Fund Management Company, Fox News reported.
BHR Partners is co-owned by the Bank of China , the state-controlled central bank.
In February the White House said that divesting was taking time.
Hunter described the intense focus on him and his business dealings as ‘comical’ and ‘over the top’, mocking Trump’s allies as ‘cartoon characters of themselves’.
He said: ‘It had the exact opposite effect than they intended.
‘I think what they intended: they knew there was nothing more important to my dad than family.’
Hunter Biden, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live in April, still retains foreign business interests
He said their announcement was: ‘We reveal Hunter Biden is an addict.’
Hunter continued: ‘I am an addict. I did have a drug problem.
‘Once I took that away from them, and lived in the light of my truth, there was nothing else that could hurt me. Nothing could break the armor of the unconditional love of my family.
‘It had the exact opposite effect of what they thought it would have.’
Hunter told how, during one of the presidential debates, his father addressed the issue of his son’s situation.
‘There is this one moment when the former president in the debate attacks me about my addiction, and my dad turns to the camera and says: ‘my son suffers from an addiction and he is in recovery, and I am proud of him – we are all proud of him’.
‘And I don’t know how many people reached out to me and said: he spoke right to me.
‘I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had someone they love, or someone they know, have the same struggle.’
The businessman said that the attention on him was ‘comical at times.’
He added: ‘I mean, so over the top comical.
‘They are cartoon characters of themselves.’
