The Tragedy Of Naomi Biden Gets Sadder & Sadder

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In some ways, Naomi Biden has lived a charmed life. There was her lavish White House wedding to Peter Neal, for one — and her Instagram is full of jealousy-inducing snaps (hi, ski trips and Italian vacays). However, she's also faced some not-so-great moments over the years. Between her uncle's passing, her parents' divorce and the scandalous affair that led up to it, her dad's legal woes, and having to defend her grandfather in the wake of a damning book, let's get into it. 

We'll start with Beau Biden's death. Naomi has typically not spoken about her late uncle or his passing publicly, though it has been hinted that they were close. As seen in the wedding video Naomi posted to her Instagram, her sister Finnegan Biden's voice broke as she mentioned Beau in her reception speech. "I'm not going to say any more because I'll cry — but Uncle Beau would have been so proud of you," she said. 

As for Naomi herself, like we said, she hasn't spoken much about her uncle's decline. However, she did open up about witnessing how much it affected her dad in a post to X back in 2020. "When my uncle got sick, my dad never missed a single doctor's appointment or chemo treatment. When he got sicker, my dad lived out of a suitcase and slept in the chair next to his hospital bed for two months. He held his hand as he lost his brother and a big piece of himself too," she wrote. A heartbreaking situation to witness, let alone be a part of. 

Sadly, as many know, Hunter Biden had an affair with his sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, in the wake of Beau Biden's death. While an affair with his late brother's widow would be tough enough for the family to handle, one especially devastating detail is that Hunter's ex-wife wasn't the first to find out: Naomi Biden and her sisters were. 

Katherine Buhle revealed that it was her kids who alerted her to the affair in her memoir, "If We Break: A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction and Healing."  A tearful Finnegan Biden had called her to say she and her sisters needed her to get to the family's therapist, where they'd be able to tell her what they'd found out. Finnegan was already there, and once Buhle arrived, they called Naomi to join in. "'We found his phone,' Finnegan said. 'There were text messages between them,' Naomi added," Buhle recounted (via People).

Buhle did go on to share in her 2022 interview with ABC News that even though a messy divorce ensued and Joe and Jill Biden gave Hunter and Hallie their blessing, she knew it was all out of love for her kids. "The one thing I've never, ever questioned was Joe and Jill's love and attention to my three daughters. Divorce was hard on all of us, because we were very close, but we come together out of a shared love for my daughters," she said. At least at the time of this writing, Naomi hasn't spoken out on the matter, but it seems as though the extended Biden family's approach of staying focused on Buhle and Hunter's kids was for the best. After all, Naomi's wedding included both parents and was hosted at her grandparents' then-home. 

Sadly for Naomi Biden, in addition to her family's personal issues becoming front-page news, her dad's legal woes were also very widely publicized — and during Hunter Biden's federal gun trial, his legal team called upon her to testify.

Though Naomi clarified in her testimony that she believed her dad was sober and doing well during the time he was accused of having purchased a gun illegally, reporters on the scene pointed out that she had seemed very shaken after taking the stand. "When she finally got off the stand ... she was wiping away tears. ... She was visibly shaking," CNN's Paula Reid recounted to Boris Sanchez. In particular, Reid noted that Naomi had seemed a little thrown by the court being shown text messages to and from her dad, which many believed to prove that his behavior at the time was "erratic."

In addition to Hunter being present for his daughter's testimony, his mother Jill Biden and aunt Valerie Biden Owens were also there, and according to the Independent, each of the family members were visibly emotional as Naomi spoke. The outlet also noted that Hunter seemed upset and began speaking to his lawyers at one point. Perhaps that was because he was worried about Naomi having been asked to take the stand, or perhaps he was upset about the messages being used as evidence. Either way, the father and daughter hugged once Naomi was done.  

Pivoting away from Naomi Biden's family for a sec, one sad detail about the former first granddaughter you may have missed is that in late 2023, three would-be robbers attempted to break into her car. According to AP, Naomi's Secret Service car had been parked on a street in Georgetown while she was out for the evening, and the agents assigned to her had spotted the carjackers in the act. They opened fire, but didn't make any arrests that evening. 

Despite not initially catching anyone, in February the following year, the New York Post reported that two suspects had been arrested. It turned out they were teenagers who had been armed — and one of them had previously been accused of armed carjacking.

In the case of Naomi's carjacking, no one was harmed and the car itself was not stolen. However, the suspects were accused of stealing equipment from it, including night vision goggles and a portable router, among other things. Altogether, the Secret Service agents' losses amounted to $1000. Even so, we're certainly relieved that Naomi and her agents were unharmed and that the carjacking itself didn't appear to be targeted at her specifically. 

Back to Naomi Biden's family, one particularly sad detail about the lawyer's life is that she's had to come to her loved ones' defense on a number of occasions. In 2020, in the same X thread where she spoke about watching her dad care for Beau Biden, Naomi also gushed over the lengths he went to to provide for his family as well as his brother (in fact, she even slipped it in that Hunter Biden had paid off his brother's student loans). She finished off by throwing shade at the Republican senators who released a report on Hunter's business in Ukraine. "Despite the best efforts of [a] cruel few to try destroy a private man, he is sober, happy, and as at peace as ever today because as long as his family needs him, he has not lost his purpose," she wrote.

Naomi has also taken on Jesse Watters for unkind comments about her family. As some may remember, in January 2024, Watters linked Joe Biden's border policy to his parenting, slating him as a bad father who enabled Hunter. In response, Naomi wrote on X, "I hope he never has a son or daughter who struggles with anything. You can disagree with his policies without being this ugly."

As for her grandfather, Naomi also came out swinging in the wake of Jake Tapper's shady book in May 2025. "This book is political fairy smut for the permanent, professional chattering class. ... All of this at the expense of a man so completely good and honest that it is impossible for these people to every understand the why or how of it all," she wrote on X. Naomi may have been through a lot, but it's pretty clear she's willing to back her family no matter what.