President Joe Biden acknowledged his four-year-old granddaughter for the first time Friday, ending a long period of silence during a yearslong custody battle involving his son Hunter, who fathered the girl in 2018.
“This is not a political issue, it’s a family matter,” President Biden said in a statement provided to People magazine. “Jill and I only want what is best for all of our grandchildren, including Navy.”
The younger Biden met Lunden Roberts, 32, during his slide into crack cocaine addiction, and she worked as his assistant in 2018. By the time their child, Navy Joan Roberts, was born later that year, he had cut off contact. In his 2021 memoir, Hunter said he “had no recollection” of his encounter with Roberts. “That’s how little connection I had with anyone. I was a mess, but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for.”
A paternity test in 2019 revealed Hunter, 53, to be the father of Roberts’ child. In 2020, Hunter paid Roberts an undisclosed amount in child support. A year later, Roberts filed a contempt motion, alleging that Hunter had withheld evidence in their legal proceedings and ignored previous rulings. That case was settled in late June. In addition to the child support payments agreed to in the settlement, Hunter will reportedly let his granddaughter choose some of his paintings.
Throughout the paternity battle, the president has not publicly acknowledged the existence of his son’s fourth child. (Hunter’s fifth, named for his late brother Beau, was born in 2020.). According to The New York Times, White House aides have been told in strategy meetings that the Bidens have six, not seven, grandchildren. Speaking to a group of children in April, Biden said he had “six grandchildren. And I’m crazy about them. And I speak to them every single day. Not a joke.”
The Times, citing a person familiar with internal discussions but unauthorized to speak publicly, reported that in recent weeks, “the president told his son that he wanted to meet Navy when the time was right.” Another person familiar with internal matters said Biden would say he has seven grandchildren going forward.
“Our son Hunter and Navy’s mother, Lunden, are working together to foster a relationship that is in the best interests of their daughter, preserving her privacy as much as possible going forward,” Biden’s statement continues.
Roberts’ father is a rural gun manufacturer who has hunted with Donald Trump Jr. Her attorney in the paternity case was Clint Lancaster, who worked for the Trump campaign in 2020 and has a history of conservative activism. Roberts, who lives with her daughter in Arkansas, previously told the Times that her daughter is “very proud of who her grandfather is and who her dad is.”