Hunter Biden opened up about his addiction to drugs and alcohol, his new marriage, his dating his sister-in-law and his foreign business deals in an interview with The New Yorker that was published Monday.

In the 11,000 word piece, Biden, the younger son of former Vice President Joe Biden, reveals he has struggled for decades with alcohol and a crack/cocaine addiction.

He also talks about his divorce from his first wife Kathleen Buhle Biden and his dating of Hallie Biden, the widow of his late brother Beau.

'Look, everybody faces pain,' the 49-year-old told the magazine. 'Everybody has trauma. There's addiction in every family. I was in that darkness. I was in that tunnel - it's a never-ending tunnel. You don't get rid of it. You figure out how to deal with it.'

The extraordinary interview appears to be a calculated attempt by the Democratic frontrunner's son to neutralize any damage his drugs; drink; infidelity; visits to strip clubs; alleged use of prostitutes; business dealings in Ukraine and China; and new marriage to a woman he had known for just 10 days might do to his father's campaign.

It reveals how Joe Biden learned that his son Beau's widow was dating his surviving son from a newspaper; and that he learned about Hunter's new marriage after the event in a phone call from Los Angeles.

The revelations are also the first time Hunter has spoken in any form about allegations his business dealings represent a conflict of interest with his father's former roles as senator and vice-president, and by extension, with a Biden presidency if he wins in 2020.

The way in which he has come clean, however, may lead to suggestions that he is burying the substantive ethical questions around his father by baring his own attention-grabbing personal demons.

Hunter Biden, the youngest son of former Vice President Joe Biden, opened up about his addictions, his new wife, his dating his sister-in-law and his foreign business deals in an interview with The New Yorker

Hunter Biden married Melissa Cohen, a 32-year-old South African filmmaker, last month

Hunter Biden recalled he first started drinking a teenager and tried cocaine for the first time when a student at Georgetown University. He took it repeatedly since, by his own admission.

The magazine piece details at least nine times Biden went to treatment centers, including a twelve-step yoga retreat in Big Sur, California; a clinic in Tijuana that provided ibogaine, a psychoactive alkaloid derived from the roots of a West African shrub, which is illegal in America; and a mediation retreat at a Flagstaff, Ariz., clinic.

On December 9, 2016, Kathleen Biden, with whom Biden has three daughters - Maisy, Finnegan, and Naomi - filed for divorce.

She charged Hunter Biden 'created financial concerns for the family by spending extravagantly on his own interests (including drugs, alcohol, prostitutes, strip clubs, and gifts for women with whom he has sexual relations), while leaving the family with no funds to pay legitimate bills.'

Hunter denied hiring prostitutes and said he hadn't been to a strip club in years.

But he told The New Yorker when the story about her divorce allegations was published: 'I went directly to a strip club. I said, 'F*** them.'

The couple had formally separated earlier that year after Biden had another relapse.

Biden recalled to the magazine how, while in Los Angeles in 2016, he asked a homeless man where he could by crack. The incident led to a man pointing a gun at his head, until he released Biden was a customer and sold to him.

While in California, Biden returned to rehab after crashing a rental car - that was found to have cocaine residue, Beau Biden's attorney-general badge, and a Secret Service business card in it.

Hallie Biden - Beau had died in May 2015 of brain cancer - flew out to visit him during that November 2016 rehab stint and that's when they decided to become a couple.

Hunter said they became close after his brother's death.

'We were sharing a very specific grief,' he told the magazine. 'I started to think of Hallie as the only person in my life who understood my loss.'

Their dating, along with Kathleen Biden's divorce petition, was leaked to the New York Post.

Hunter and Hallie began dating after the death of her husband Beau Biden - former Vice President Joe Biden's elder son. Beau passed away from brain cancer in 2015 at age 46 (pictured together left in 2011). Then in 2017 she began to date Beau's brother Hunter who was still married to his then-wife Kathleen (pictured together right in 2016)

Hunter was in a relationship with his late brother Beau's widow Hallie (shown together in August 2017) several months before he is alleged to have impregnated Lunden Alexis Roberts

Kathleen Biden filed for divorce in December 2016

Vice President Biden learned of their relationship when the Post called his office to ask for a comment.

Hunter issued a statement saying that he and Hallie were 'incredibly lucky to have found the love and support we have for each other in such a difficult time.'

And he told The New Yorker he asked his dad to make a statement too.

'I said, 'Dad, Dad, you have to.' He said, 'Hunter, I don't know if I should. But I'll do whatever you want me to do.' I said, 'Dad, if people find out, but they think you're not approving of this, it makes it seem wrong. The kids have to know, Dad, that there's nothing wrong with this, and the one person who can tell them that is you.''

TIMELINE OF HUNTER'S RELATIONSHIPS May 2015: Beau Biden dies of brain cancer October 2015: Hunter and his wife Kathleen separate formally March 2017: Hunter and Beau's widow, Hallie, confirm they are dating April 2017: Hunter and Kathleen's divorce is finalized Fall 2017: Lunden Roberts becomes pregnant in Arkansas August 2018: Lunden Roberts gives birth to baby which she says is Hunter's April 2019: Hunter and Hallie split for unknown reasons May 2019: Hunter marries Melissa Cohen in Los Angeles a month after meeting her Advertisement

Hunter and Hallie split up after several months.

'All we got was s*** from everybody, all the time,' Hunter told the magazine. 'It was really hard. And I realized that I'm not helping anybody by sticking around.'

He moved to Los Angeles so he could 'completely disappear.'

It was there, in May of this year, he met Melissa Cohen, a 32-year-old South African filmmaker who was working on a series of documentaries about indigenous tribes in southern Africa.

A few days after their first date, he tattooed 'shalom' on his left bicep to match a tattoo she sported in the same spot.

Less than a week after they met he proposed. When she accepted they married the next day.

Hunter told The New Yorker that after the ceremony: 'I called my dad and said that we just got married. He was on speaker, and he said to her, 'Thank you for giving my son the courage to love again.'

He added: 'And he said to me, 'Honey, I knew that when you found love again that I'd get you back.' '

He noted: 'And my reply was, I said, 'Dad, I always had love. And the only thing that allowed me to see it was the fact that you never gave up on me, you always believed in me.'

Additionally, Hunter Biden denied having sexual relations with Lunden Alexis Roberts, 28, an Arkansas woman suing him for child support, claiming he is the father of her 10-month-old baby.

The magazine piece also details Biden's professional career - his decision to go to law school instead of a writing program he was accepted to so he could provide for his family.

Hunter Biden told The New Yorker he felt pressure to make money given his father and brother's work in public service. The piece traces Biden's career through is work in the Commerce Department, his time as a lobbyist, and his sitting up his own firm, which would lead to eventual political troubles when it came to his foreign clients.

Additionally in the piece, Hunter denied any business wrong doings, particularly in relation to a Ukrainian energy company where Biden sat on the board at the time the former vice president was involved in the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the company.

Republicans have gone after Hunter Biden's work there and his business dealings in China, as a participant in a firm called Bohai Harvest RST.

Biden married 32-year-old Melissa Cohen in May this year, a month after splitting from Hallie

Beau died in May 2015. He and Hallie are pictured in November 2010

Last month, Jill Biden posted a family photo celebrating Hunter's daughter Maisy's graduation from high school in D.C., and absent from the group shot was Hunter's new wife Melissa. Pictured: Joe and Jill, their daughter Ashley Biden (far left), Hunter and Hunter's three daughters, Maisy (center), Naomi (second from left) and Finnegan (far right)

WHAT IS IBOGAINE?: THE PSYCHEDELIC DRUG USED TO TREAT ADDICTION Made from the root of a West African shrub, ibogaine is a psychedelic drug. Ibogaine is used in religious ceremonies in some countries, but is illegal in the US. A number of small studies suggest that the drug may help treat addiction. Researchers think that it targets receptors in the brain's addiction circuit. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the use of psychedelic drugs, like ibogaine and ayahuasca, to treat mental illnesses. Another psychedelic, ayahuasca, may be effective at treating depression, some research indicates. But ayahuasca, a psychotropic brew made from an Amazonian plant is illegal in the US, too. Researchers think that, like ibogaine, it may provide a 'reset' for the brain. Ayahuasca also contains two compounds found separately in the common antidepressants. Advertisement

Hunter said he was an unpaid member of BHR's board and did not take equity stake in company until after his father left the White House.

During a December 2013 to Beijing when his father was vice president, Hunter - who was on the trip with his daughter Finnegan - said he arranged for his father to shake hands with Jonathan Li, their Chinese partner.

'How do I go to Beijing, halfway around the world, and not see them for a cup of coffee?' he said, asking why there were concerns about the meeting.

A former White House aide told The New Yorker whether or not Hunter 'was leveraging access for his benefit, which just wasn't done in that White House. Optics really mattered, and that seemed to be cutting it pretty close, even if nothing nefarious was going on.'

The aide also there was a perception that 'Hunter was on the loose, potentially undermining his father's message.'

Vice President Biden's method of dealing with Hunter was to leave things alone, the magazine revealed.

A business associate of the family told the New Yorker that the vice president, during difficult conversations about his family, 'got deeply melancholy, which, to me, is more painful than if someone yelled and screamed at me. It's like you've hurt him terribly. That was always my fear, that I would be really touching a very fragile part of him.'

Vice President Biden and the Biden family at Beau's funeral in June 2015

Then Vice President Joe Biden exiting Air Force Two with his granddaughter Finnegan Biden and son Hunter Biden on December 4, 2013 in Beijing, China

Then-Vice President Joe Biden buys an ice-cream at a shop as he tours a Hutong alley with his granddaughter Finnegan Biden, right, and son Hunter Biden, left on December 5, 2013 in Beijing

Vice President Biden, Jill Biden, Beau Biden and Hunter Biden at the 2009 inauguration

But it's Hunter Biden's work on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company, that garnered the attention of President Donald Trump and his campaign. Rudy Giuliani, who serves as a personal attorney to Trump, threatened to go to that country to investigate the matter - although he ultimately dropped the trip.

Hunter Biden said, when he joined the board, he told the company he would not be involved in any matters that involved the U.S. government.

Fellow board member, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, the former President of Poland, told the magazine: 'We never discussed how the Vice-President can help us. Frankly speaking, we didn't need such help.'

Hunter Biden said his father discussed Burisma with him just once: 'Dad said, 'I hope you know what you are doing,' and I said, 'I do.'

In April, he declined an offer from Burisma to serve additional time on its board.

'I feel the decisions that I made were the right decisions for my family and for me,' he told The New Yorker. 'Was it worth it? Was it worth the pain? No. It certainly wasn't worth the grief.'

'I would never have been able to predict that Donald Trump would have picked me out as the tip of the spear against the one person they believe can beat them,' he added.

Hunter said that, in his talks with his father: 'I'm saying sorry to him, and he says, 'I'm the one who's sorry,' and we have an ongoing debate about who should be more sorry. And we both realize that the only true antidote to any of this is winning. He says, 'Look, it's going to go away.' There is truly a higher purpose here, and this will go away. So can you survive the assault?'

Hunter Biden noted he had seen reports on Twitter that Trump was calling for him to be investigated by the Justice Department.

'I told Melissa, "I don't care. F*** you, Mr. President. Here I am, living my life."'