Margie Fishman, and Nicole Gaudiano

The News Journal

Former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter confirmed Wednesday he is having a romantic relationship with his brother's widow, Hallie, according to the New York Post.

The 47-year-old lawyer and former lobbyist told Page Six, “Hallie and I are incredibly lucky to have found the love and support we have for each other in such a difficult time, and that’s been obvious to the people who love us most. We’ve been so lucky to have family and friends who have supported us every step of the way.”

Hallie has two children, a daughter named Natalie and a son, Hunter, with the late Beau Biden, who was Delaware's attorney general. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in May 2015.

Beau's younger brother, Hunter, has three children, Finnegan, Maisy and Naomi, with his wife of more than 20 years, Kathleen. Originally from Chicago, Kathleen met Hunter when they were working for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. Later, Kathleen campaigned for her father-in-law when he was running for vice president.

The couple separated in October of 2015, a source told Page Six. The News Journal was unable to independently verify the information. Both Hallie and Hunter Biden could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.

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Joe Biden, who represented Delaware in the Senate for 36 years before serving as President Barack Obama's vice president for eight years, told Page Six that he and his wife, Jill, have given their blessing to the relationship. He said, “We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness. They have mine and Jill’s full and complete support and we are happy for them.”

When contacted by USA Today, Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman for the former vice president, stated she had "nothing further to provide right now."

Reached at his Wilmington home, Hallie Biden's father, Ron Olivere, said he "stands with the Bidens" in supporting the couple.

"I'm in total support of the family and what they've gone through and what they continue to go through," he said. He declined further comment.

Several friends of the Bidens told The News Journal that they knew nothing about Hallie and Hunter's relationship.

Hallie, who has worked as a guidance counselor for Archmere Academy and an admissions counselor at the Tatnall School, married Beau in 2002. It was an intimate wedding on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, where he had proposed to her a year earlier.

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In 2003, Beau joined the National Guard; he was deployed to Iraq in 2008 while his father was running for vice president.

In previous interviews, Hunter called Beau his hero and closest confidante. The brothers were seriously injured in a 1972 car crash that killed their mother and baby sister.

During Beau's emotional two-hour funeral, Hunter recalled the aftermath of that early tragedy. His first memory, he said, was lying in a hospital bed with Beau, who held his hand and stared into his eyes, saying, "I love you, I love you, I love you' over and over again."

Hunter also sat at his brother's bedside on May 30, 2015.

"I held his hand, and he took his last breath," he said at Beau's funeral.

After Beau's death, Hallie established the Beau Biden Foundation for the Protection of Children to continue her late husband's commitment to prosecuting sexual abuse.

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Hunter Biden came up with the idea of a golf tournament as a fundraiser for the foundation.

In August, he joined the family in attending a ceremony at a U.S. Army base in Kosovo honoring Beau Biden. The Kosovo government had decided to name a 21-mile roadway in the southeastern part of the Balkan nation as the Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III National Road.

Contact Margie Fishman at (302) 324-2882, on Twitter @MargieTrende or mfishman@delawareonline.com.