Here's how Joe Biden found out about son Hunter Biden's affair with his late brother's widow

Hunter Biden begged his father, Joe Biden, to publicly support his relationship with his late brother Beau's widow, Hallie Biden.

In a profile in the New Yorker published on Monday, the son of the 2020 presidential hopeful opened up about a variety of topics, including his controversial affair going public, revealing that his father found out about the tryst when Page Six reached out to him for comment in 2017.

"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,'" Hunter recalled. "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.'"

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The outlet reported in March 2017 that Hunter and Hallie were dating, three months after his wife, Kathleen, filed for divorce that previous December.

"We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness," Joe and Jill Biden said in a statement at the time. "They have mine and Jill’s full and complete support and we are happy for them."

"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," Hunter said. "We’ve been so lucky to have family and friends who have supported us every step of the way."

In his New Yorker profile, Hunter revealed that he and Hallie decided to become a couple while he was staying at luxury resort Mii Amo in Sedona, Arizona, in October 2016, which came after he crashed a rental car near Palm Springs while reportedly driving with a crack pipe containing cocaine residue.

Hunter and Hallie moved in together in Annapolis, Maryland, but they couldn't avoid attention and criticism because of their unconventional relationship, which was revealed less than two years after Beau Biden died from brain cancer at the age of 46 in 2015.

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"All we got was sh-t from everybody, all the time," Hunter told the New Yorker. "It was really hard. And I realized that I’m not helping anybody by sticking around."

They broke up "several months" later, but the split didn't become public until earlier this year. Last month, it was revealed in a bombshell report that Hunter secretly married South African woman Melissa Cohen in May, just ten days after meeting her. He's also facing a paternity lawsuit from another woman, who claims that he fathered a child with her in August 2018.