Hunter Biden asks court to stop daughter from taking his surname, reports

Biden argued that his last name would draw criticism and that his daughter should decide on her own whether she wants to take it on at a later date.

By Madeleine Hubbard

Published: January 15, 2023 1:00pm

Updated: January 15, 2023 2:03pm

Hunter Biden reportedly argued that giving his daughter Navy Joan Roberts his last name would rob the 4-year-old of a "peaceful existence."

President Joe Biden's son made the request on Jan. 6 in an Independence, Arkansas, court as part of an ongoing legal battle to lower his child-support payments to Lunden Roberts, a former stripper and mother of one of Hunter Biden's five children, The New York Post and other outlets reported Saturday.

Roberts, 31, late last year asked Circuit Court Judge Holly Meyer to allow her child to use the Biden surname because it is "synonymous with being well educated, successful, financially acute and politically powerful."

She said in a filing that her daughter is "estranged" from the presidential family, but "it can be rectified by changing her last name to Biden so that she may undeniably be known to the world as the child of the defendant and member of the prestigious Biden family."

Biden, 52, argued that his last name would draw criticism and that his daughter should decide on her own when "the disparagement of the Biden name is not at its height."

After a DNA test revealed that Biden fathered the child, he paid Roberts $2.5 million in 2020 and has continued to pay monthly child support. Roberts' request for her daughter's name to be changed came after Biden filed a motion in September to lower his child support payments due to what he called a "substantial material change" in his "financial circumstances."