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Once upon a time, in a land far, far away from the Delaware courthouse where I had just been convicted of several weapons charges, I had a long heart-to-heart conversation with Hunter Biden.
This is the kind of thing that happens when you’ve emerged from the flaming fire of addiction: one moment you’re wondering how to get through the day without at least two bottles of Pinot Grigio in your system, and the next you’re comparing notes with the son. from the president of the United States about all the times you’ve stood on the side of the road waiting for a drug dealer to sell you cocaine.
For the record, the 54-year-old, who faces up to 25 years in prison for lying about his drug addiction when he purchased a firearm in 2018, definitely beat me on the cocaine score. For starters, they never held a gun to my head while trying to get drugs, and they never blacklisted me from every seedy motel in Los Angeles for my unsavory behavior.
US President Joe Biden speaks with his son Hunter at the Delaware Air National Guard Base this week.
I also never went 13 sleepless nights because of my drug use. (I think the maximum was two and I wouldn’t recommend it).
In fact, Hunter is probably the first person I’ve ever met who has made me feel like a nun, and as a recovering party girl who once went to Ronnie Wood’s house, that’s saying a lot.
But let’s get back to our heart to heart. It was the spring of 2021 and Biden Jr. was about to turn two years clean and sober, while I was about to turn four years clean and sober.
He had just published a book, Beautiful Things, in which he detailed with stunning candor the depths to which he sank while addicted to crack, and had agreed to be interviewed by me for the mental health podcast I hosted at the time.
Despite the book’s honesty, I wasn’t expecting much more than a bland discussion of the difficulties of writing it, so I was pleasantly surprised when I instead got a nearly two-hour talk about the absolute insanity of alcoholism and addiction.
We talk addict to addict, over Zoom, instead of talking about the president’s son with a journalist.
I had seen images online of him topless and hanging while smoking crack, having filmed himself with prostitutes, but this was a very different Hunter: educated, articulate, erudite, with the telltale bright eyes and the healthy appearance of someone. in early sobriety.
From a posh apartment in Los Angeles, he told me that he had written the book for me, and while in any other context this might have seemed insincere, here, like one addict talking to another, it rang true.
“I’m not joking, but I wrote it for you,” he said. ‘For those people who could immediately relate to that vivid detail I provide about what it’s like to be trapped in that terrible space of addiction. And above all, I wrote it to let people know that they are not alone.’
We talk about his first memory, when, when he was two years old, he arrived at the hospital, with his brother Beau lying in bed next to him mouthing “I love you, I love you, I love you,” as they learned that they had survived an accident car that had killed his mother and little sister, Naomi.
Forty-two years later, Beau would die of brain cancer, and in the midst of grief and addiction, Hunter would embark on an affair with his widowed sister-in-law. It was one of the many sordid footnotes to his addiction, including fathering a child with a stripper and disappearing from her daughters, as detailed in court last week.
There are many people, including Donald Trump, who find it surprising that ‘Sleepy Joe’ would still associate himself with the Black Sheep of the Biden family, much less announce that he was ‘proud’ of his son, on the same day said son became the first son of a sitting president to be convicted of a crime.
But anyone who has gone through addiction, or seen a family member go through addiction, will get it. Because, as Hunter himself told me, “addiction is difficult, but it is even more difficult for those who keep coming back to you and offering you love over and over again, and you reject it, and apparently consciously choose a drink or a drug instead.” instead of them. It’s infuriating and frustrating.”
But here’s the thing about addicts, when they find recovery, like Hunter did: Oddly enough, they become some of the most trustworthy humans on the planet. Twelve-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous, which many use to stay sober, encourage people to take responsibility for their mistakes. Hunter told me that he felt “abject” guilt and shame for what he put his father through, and every day he counted his blessings. “The only reason I’m here is because of his love,” he said.
And while some want us to think of Hunter as an irresponsible drug addict, I think he has shown a resilience that few can imagine. And I’m sure he’ll do everything he can to make things right.
That’s why it wouldn’t occur to him to ask his father for forgiveness: because when you recover from an addiction, you can finally do the right thing. You can show the world who you really are, in the light of day.
I have PETD (Post Eras Tour Depression)
Taylor Swift enjoys a girls’ night out at Argentinian restaurant Casa Cruz in Notting Hill, west London, this week.
The Taylor Swift juggernaut has officially arrived in the UK and, like many women across the country who have already been lucky enough to see her in concert, I’m starting to experience a phenomenon known as PETD, or Post Eras Tour Depression. Symptoms include lethargy, crying and the realization that she has now experienced the best night of her life and that everything will go downhill from now on.
Hooray for naked Nicola from Bridgerton!
Nicola Coughlan in the six-minute sex scene in Bridgerton raised the temperature of many viewers
Congratulations to Nicola Coughlan, who stars in a six-minute sex scene in Bridgerton.
Some have been surprised that a woman over size 8 would dare to take off her clothes on camera.
One journalist told Coughlan, 37, that she was “very brave”, as if she could take this as a compliment. Note to humans everywhere: Telling a woman that she is “brave” for daring to exist in something other than a burlap sack is in itself brave. Or exceptionally stupid.
Either way, it’s not at all the compliment you think it is.
Some people are worried about the WAGs in England because the closest store to their hotel in the Euros is a TK Maxx, not a Chanel boutique. What I find most worrying? That 20 years after the tired old term ‘Wag’ was coined, we still use it!
Dear HR, I love Harry.
BP bosses have told senior staff they must report any office romance or face dismissal.
This made me think about my own office romance, many years ago, and how I could have reported it. Would you have sent an email or a formal letter? Something like: To whom it may concern, I’ve been having problems with Harry on the 10th floor for some time and we’ve decided to take things to the next level by declaring our relationship with HR. Yours, Bryony on the 11th floor.
In the end I chose a more traditional route. Reader, I married him.
trusted clinic
Like Nicola Coughlan, I have no problem taking my clothes off. As a result, people often send messages saying they wish they had my trust. With that in mind, I’ll summarize my tips here. My first? Remember: confidence is a trick. I don’t have confidence. What I do have is the desire to not spend another minute of my precious life hating my body.