President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has detailed his lifelong struggle with alcoholism and drug abuse in a new memoir.

Mr Biden 51, wrote that “in the last five years alone, my two-decades-long marriage has dissolved, guns have been put in my face, and at one point I dropped clean off the grid, living in $59-a-night Super 8 motels off I-95 while scaring my family even more than myself”.

He said his “deep descent” into substance addiction followed the 2015 death of his older brother, Beau, who succumbed to brain cancer at age 46.

“After Beau died, I never felt more alone. I lost hope,” he wrote.

He credits his second wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, with helping him sober up, along with the love from his father and late brother.

The book, titled Beautiful Things, is set for release on Tuesday.