HUNTER BIDEN HAS described his father’s 2023 presidential visit to Ireland as one of the moments that made him “most proud”, saying he still watches videos of Joe Biden’s speech in Ballina, Co Mayo to lift his spirits.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio 1′s The Oliver Callan Show today, the son of the former US president said the family’s visit to Ireland was “the most amazing thing”.

“I was never more proud of a public appearance that my dad made than when he was in Ballina,” Hunter Biden said.

“I still, if I want to cheer myself up, I still watch the video of that.”

Biden also recalled visiting Carlingford, Knock and Co Mayo during the trip, describing his family’s Irish heritage as “very important”.

“I know it probably drives the Irish a little bit crazy how many people in the United States claim to be Irish, but in my family it is very important,” Biden said.

Hunter Biden pictured with his father during their visit to Ireland. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Asked how his father is doing now, Biden said the former president was continuing to battle stage four prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, describing him as “so tough” despite the effects of treatment.

Joe Biden’s office confirmed earlier this year that the former president had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.

“He has stage four cancer… metastatic bone cancer,” Hunter Biden said. “The treatment that they put you on is incredibly depleting.

“But he’s still got – he’s so tough. I wish he would complain a lot more than he does.”

Biden said his father continued to work to give Americans “some hope” that the country could return to “some normalcy”.

He added that, unlike his father, he has “no political aspiration”.

During the interview, Biden also reflected on his own recovery from addiction, saying he has now been sober for more than seven years after what he described as one of the most tumultuous periods of his life.

“I’ve been clean and sober for over seven years now,” he said.

“Despite what it looked like from the outside, I was building a new self, and in that I was given a freedom that I never knew that I would ever be able to enjoy.”

He said becoming more open about his addiction had helped him connect with others facing similar struggles.

“The more I just was exactly who I am, the more it resonated with people,” Biden said, adding that he now uses social media to encourage people struggling with addiction to seek help and realise they are “not alone”.

Hunter Biden pictured in January 2025. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Biden also discussed the presidential pardon granted to him by his father a month before Joe Biden left office.

In pardoning his youngest son, the president spared Hunter Biden the possibility of significant prison time stemming from convictions in two federal cases.

For tax charges, he faced up to 17 years in federal prison and $1.35 million (€1.17 million) in fines, while a gun-related conviction carried a potential of up to 25 years in prison.

While describing himself as “eternally grateful”, Hunter Biden acknowledged it had not been “good for the country”.

“The honest answer is no. It wasn’t good for the country, not even remotely,” he said, arguing, however, that Donald Trump would otherwise have continued using the justice system against him.

The interview also touched on the long-running controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop, which became a focal point of political attacks during Joe Biden’s presidency after a computer purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden was left at a Delaware repair shop in 2019.

Hunter Biden said he had recently discussed the issue with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson, claiming Carlson had shared information suggesting material attributed to the laptop had been circulating in Ukraine and Tel Aviv before the repair shop story emerged.

Hunter Biden did not provide evidence for the claim.

He argued that years of scrutiny had ultimately failed to uncover evidence that he had asked his father to intervene on behalf of his overseas business interests.

“They have 22 years of my digital life,” he said, adding that there was “not one single message” in which he asked his father to do anything for a client.