Hunter Biden spent much of a nearly 90-minute podcast interview discussing his sexuality in percentage terms, the latest in a string of headline-grabbing personal disclosures from the former first son.
The 56-year-old son of former President Joe Biden appeared on The Luke Beasley Show in an episode posted August 16, where host Luke Beasley opened with a blunt question: "Are you gay?" Hunter Biden's answer, "Only a little bit", set the tone for an exchange that kept circling back to the topic for the bulk of the interview, the New York Post reported.
Beasley pressed further, asking whether Hunter was "more or less than 50 percent" gay. Hunter offered a precise figure: "48.6 percent."
The exchange did not stop at a single claim. When Beasley asked whether he would be Hunter's "type," Hunter responded:
"A little bit more masculine would be my type, if I was gay."
Beasley then showed Hunter an AI-generated image depicting the two men in a close embrace. Hunter reacted with apparent surprise, saying, "Oh Jesus Christ, I don't know. I just, it all is coming back to me." He attributed the implied scenario to his past substance abuse, adding, "I was in a stupor at that point. I think that was pre-2019 when I got sober."
The remark tied the conversation to a period of Hunter Biden's life that has generated years of public scrutiny. He has previously spoken about his drug use and its intersection with his family's political life, including his father's time as vice president.
As the interview continued, Hunter revised his self-assigned percentage downward. He told Beasley he wanted to walk back his earlier figure: "maybe I take back 48.5" percent. Then he dropped it further.
"More like 47 [percent] after that conversation. My gaydom went down a percentage point."
But the number did not stay there. Toward the end of the episode, Hunter circled back one more time: "I just wanted to let you know that I am back up to 48.5 percent gay."
Hunter Biden married his current wife, Melissa Cohen, in 2019, six days after they met. He had divorced his former wife, Kathleen Buhle, in 2017. He and Buhle share three daughters.
The podcast appearance fits a pattern. In recent months, Hunter Biden has made a series of public statements about his father, his own legal troubles, and his personal history that have kept him in the headlines long after Joe Biden left office. He has offered candid disclosures about his father's health and sharp criticism of his father's personnel decisions in the White House.
Whether Hunter Biden's remarks about his sexuality were meant as jokes, sincere self-identification, or something in between, the Post's reporting did not make clear. The shifting percentages, 48.6, then 48.5, then 47, then back to 48.5, suggest a man who treats the question as a running bit rather than a serious declaration.
None of that stopped the interview from dominating talk about the Biden family for the better part of two weeks. The broader public fascination with Hunter Biden's conduct has never really been about any single remark. It has been about the gap between the seriousness of the offices his family has held and the seriousness with which he treats his own public profile. The long trail of questions surrounding the Biden family's business dealings and institutional responses to them has only widened that gap.
The full episode ran nearly 90 minutes. Yet the portion that generated coverage was almost entirely about Hunter Biden's sexuality, not policy, not accountability, not any of the legal or financial questions that have trailed him for years.
That itself says something. Hunter Biden has spent the post-White House period building a public persona that runs on provocation and personal revelation. The strategy, if it is one, keeps him visible. It also keeps the conversation exactly where he wants it, on personality, not on the record.
For a family whose allies spent years deflecting hard questions about accountability and judgment, a podcast about being "48 percent gay" is a comfortable place to land. It costs nothing and answers nothing.
When the most newsworthy thing a former first son can produce in 90 minutes is a shifting fraction of his own identity, the public is not learning about him, he is making sure they stop asking about everything else.
