{"id":70667,"date":"2024-12-04T16:31:38","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T16:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvbrazilusa.com\/2024\/12\/04\/she-met-hunter-biden-one-night-at-a-club-then-she-fell-in-love\/"},"modified":"2024-12-04T16:36:02","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T16:36:02","slug":"she-met-hunter-biden-one-night-at-a-club-then-she-fell-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvbrazilusa.com\/pt\/2024\/12\/04\/she-met-hunter-biden-one-night-at-a-club-then-she-fell-in-love\/","title":{"rendered":"She met Hunter Biden one night at a club. Then she fell in love."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-8864793242727901\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<header class=\"m-article-header m-article-header--standard\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span id=\"article-header-primary-term\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"a-term a-term--primary\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/tag\/politics\/\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPolitics\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"m-article-header__sub-headline\">A chance meeting in December 2017 plunged Zo\u00eb Kestan, a downtown \u201cit\u201d girl and social media star, headlong into an unpredictable affair.<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"a-photo m-article-header__photo\"><figcaption class=\"a-photo__caption\">\n\t<em> <\/em>\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"m-article-header__meta\">\n<div class=\"m-article-header__byline\">\n<p class=\"m-article-header__author\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Joseph Bernstein, New York Times Service\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<time class=\"m-article-header__date\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDecember 4, 2024 | 11:31 AM\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/time><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Zo\u00eb Kestan at her apartment in Brooklyn borough of New York on Nov. 13, 2024. A chance meeting in December 2017 plunged Zo\u00eb Kestan, a downtown \u201cit\u201d girl and social media star, headlong into an unpredictable affair. <i> \u2013 Graham Dickie\/The New York Times<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NEW YORK \u2014 When Zo\u00eb Kestan first met Hunter Biden she didn\u2019t know who he was. His father, Joe Biden, was no longer in office, and she didn\u2019t read the news much anyway.<\/p>\n<p>As far as Kestan knew, as she neared the end of her shift at Vivid Cabaret, the midtown Manhattan strip club where she performed, Hunter Biden was just another VIP client with the clout to book a private room in the wee hours of the morning.<\/p>\n<p>And Kestan, at the time a 24-year-old downtown \u201cit\u201d girl, fashion designer and social media star, could have had no idea, as she rode the elevator to the top floor of the club, that the evening would change her life \u2014 plunging her into an 11-month love affair with a man whose personal conduct would become the subject of the country\u2019s prurient curiosity.<\/p>\n<p>Her relationship with the handsome, well-dressed customer would end with intimate images of Kestan exposed to the world, via Biden\u2019s infamous laptop, and turn her into a tabloid figure in her own right, dragged into the chummed waters of a partisan-media feeding frenzy.<\/p>\n<p>It would also force Kestan \u2014 as one of the most extensive observers of Biden\u2019s drug use \u2014 to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/05\/us\/elections\/zoe-kestan-hunter-biden-trial.html\">testify in federal court this spring<\/a>, along with some of his other former romantic partners.<\/p>\n<p>Seven years after their meeting, Kestan, 31, is still trying to process what happened. She became well known, but on terms totally different from those she had imagined. The collision of her local fame with Biden\u2019s national notoriety left her with whiplash, unsure of who she was.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was confronted with the fact that the only thing I know about my identity now is \u2014 I\u2019m still affected by this person, and certain people around me think of me only in relation to him,\u201d Kestan said in an interview from her apartment in New York\u2019s Brooklyn borough, where she lives with her Shih Tzu, Enzo.<\/p>\n<p>Biden\u2019s regular appearances in the news, she said, have made it hard for her to move on, personally and professionally. On Sunday, the president announced that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/politics\/2024\/12\/01\/biden-pardons-his-son-hunter-despite-previous-pledges-not-to\/\">he would pardon his son<\/a>, who was scheduled to be sentenced this month on federal gun and tax evasion charges.<\/p>\n<p>Neither Hunter Biden nor his lawyers responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>While Kestan did not want to address her ex\u2019s high-profile reprieve, she had much to say about her year with Biden, and its difficult aftermath. There\u2019s no doubt she has lived through something sensational and extraordinary, but she can\u2019t quite figure out how it fits in with the rest of her life.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-inventing-weedslut\"><b>Inventing \u2018WeedSlut\u2019 <\/b><\/h3>\n<p>A New Yorker through and through, Kestan, the daughter of a lawyer and a salesperson, grew up in the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side, in the Manhattan borough. She attended the elite Horace Mann School, and a lifelong love of fashion and art led her to the Rhode Island School of Design, where she nurtured plans to turn her designs into a brand. Kestan returned to the city after graduation, by day working for Jeff Koons as a color mixer and by night immersing herself in Manhattan nightlife. A regular at the Boom Boom Room and China Chalet, she found herself mixing with other designers and picking up freelance projects for Telfar Clemens and rapper Travis Scott.<\/p>\n<p>She became a star in the downtown world through her Instagram, which combined images of Kestan in scant dress (often consuming marijuana) with a rainbow-colored mood board of objects that caught her eye: a Lego house, some patterned yarn, an orange cream soda.<\/p>\n<p>Kestan had long been a reader of Vice Magazine, which spurred her fascination with porn stars including Sasha Grey and Stoya, who she thought embodied a kind of intelligent feminist sexuality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSlutty was an art form for her,\u201d said Matheus Lima, a longtime friend of Kestan.<\/p>\n<p>It was through her Instagram that Kestan was discovered by Andrew Richardson, publisher of a namesake magazine and streetwear label pitched at the intersection of erotica, skate culture and the art world.<\/p>\n<p>Richardson hired Kestan to dance at his parties and had her photographed for his magazine. Kestan soon became a fixture in a dissolute 2010s milieu that included such figures as Julia Fox and Jack Donoghue \u2014 people who were not yet famous but on the cusp of it.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, she lost her Koons job but soon picked up another as a designer at ad agency Wieden+Kennedy. Still, she was looking to supplement her income. After some encouragement from a friend who was a stripper, Kestan began dancing at Vivid Cabaret.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt boosted my confidence a lot,\u201d she said. \u201cIt made me feel really powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the spring of 2017, Kestan folded all her nightlife connections and fascinations with the aesthetics of sex work and weed into a collection of lingerie and apparel that she showed at Paul\u2019s Baby Grand, a cocktail lounge in Tribeca.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWEEDSLUT,\u201d read a flyer defining her new brand, \u201cis about embracing and enjoying the effort and glamour of an exaggerated style of dress that is unashamedly dripping with sexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kestan felt the show was a triumph, and started visiting manufacturers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe had a lot of ideas and energy, and she was hardworking,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cAfter the show at Paul\u2019s Baby Grand, we all thought she was going to go on and do something.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Later that year, she met Biden.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-kestan-675082e17b8f9-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32445387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-kestan-675082e17b8f9-scaled.jpg?width=200 200w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-kestan-675082e17b8f9-scaled.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-kestan-675082e17b8f9-scaled.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-kestan-675082e17b8f9-scaled.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-kestan-675082e17b8f9-scaled.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-kestan-675082e17b8f9-scaled.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-kestan-675082e17b8f9-scaled.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-kestan-675082e17b8f9-scaled.jpg?width=900 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Zoe Kestan departs from federal court, Wednesday, June 5, 2024, in Wilmington, Del. <i> \u2013 Matt Rourke \/ The Associated Press<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-i-m-just-so-attracted-to-him\"><b>\u2018I\u2019m Just So Attracted to Him\u2019 <\/b><\/h3>\n<p>A few days after their private dance, Kestan walked into a suite at the Soho Grand Hotel and found Biden in his underwear smoking cigarettes and blasting Sturgill Simpson. By then, she had figured out who he was, and when another dancer invited her to a party with Biden at the downtown hotel, Kestan figured: Why not? Her brand was debauchery and camp, and she was young.<\/p>\n<p>In the hotel room, Biden immediately asked Kestan about her work: He wanted to see photos of her designs, to connect on a creative level.<\/p>\n<p>It was disarming, Kestan remembered. Biden was 47, nearly twice her age, but he wanted to talk to her as a peer. And he was exciting and spontaneous. When Kestan mentioned that she wanted to check out some new designs at a nearby lingerie shop, Biden handed Kestan the keys to his Porsche to drive the seven blocks from the hotel. Then, she said, he persuaded the staff to let them stay past closing so they could browse.<\/p>\n<p>That night they dined at Fanelli Cafe, and stayed up until 4 a.m. talking. Biden spoke of his children; his brother Beau, who died in 2015; and his addictions \u2014 to alcohol, and more recently, to crack cocaine. He looked back wistfully at his periods of sobriety, and said he wanted to get sober again. He took a pull from his glass pipe, she said, every 20 minutes, but when he took it he didn\u2019t seem impaired or different; he just seemed like himself.<\/p>\n<p>In the morning, Biden asked Kestan to stay the week with him. She knew this was fast, but she felt a powerful connection between them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m just so attracted to him,\u201d Kestan said, recalling her thinking. \u201cI did not want to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Thus began the pattern of their relationship: stays, some long and some short, at luxury hotels in New York and Los Angeles \u2014 the Four Seasons, the Mercer, 6 Columbus, the Roosevelt, the Freehand, the Jeremy. In New York, Kestan introduced Biden to her downtown demimonde, taking him to art openings and fashion shows and out to dinner at Lucien. Not yet a national figure, Biden largely went unrecognized.<\/p>\n<p>The pair had discussed a stint in rehab for Biden and agreed to go together to California for him to get sober. But when Kestan arrived in Los Angeles, Biden had changed plans, renting a bungalow for a month at the Chateau Marmont on the Sunset Strip.<\/p>\n<p>The haven for immoderation was hardly a place to slow down. But the timing was perfect: Kestan needed to supervise manufacturing of the WeedSlut line at factories in the area.<\/p>\n<p>Kestan remembers this stay as the highlight of their relationship. Biden introduced her around the hotel as his girlfriend, and the pair explored the city together. She found Biden funny, smart and charming: a history buff who wanted to talk about Genghis Khan and Cleopatra; an artist at heart who wanted to write a great book, gave her ideas for WeedSlut merchandise and listened to her read Camille Paglia essays late into the night; and an exhibitionist who loved posing for selfies as much as she did, and mused about posting explicit videos of himself to Pornhub.<\/p>\n<p>And he was touchingly sensitive, she said. Up late one night, taking mushrooms and listening to their favorite music, Biden had a surprising reaction to a song by the rapper Lil Peep that Kestan had put on. The artist had died recently of an overdose, and hearing his songs made Biden sad. He asked her to turn it off.<\/p>\n<p>Another night, Kestan introduced Biden to her mother over dinner at the Chateau. Her mother was skeptical.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe didn\u2019t say anything bad about him,\u201d Kestan said. \u201cBut she wasn\u2019t particularly impressed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t just her mother. A month earlier, Kestan had invited Lima to a Manhattan hotel suite to meet Biden. At first, Lima was charmed: Biden was easy to talk to and gave him a gold ring.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut then very quickly I was like, This has a price,\u201d Lima said. \u201cYou don\u2019t just get things for free.\u201d Lima expressed his concerns to Kestan; in particular, he was worried that Biden\u2019s lifestyle could be a danger to her. When Kestan continued to see Biden, Lima was distraught.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI care so much for her safety, but she\u2019s choosing this scary guy over her own future and goals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-party-s-over\"><b>Party\u2019s Over <\/b><\/h3>\n<p>As the couple\u2019s stay at the Chateau Marmont neared its end, Kestan had started to understand just how deeply Biden\u2019s addiction ruled his life. When Kestan went to sleep, she said, Biden would retreat into the bathroom, where he would set up a laptop and a crack pipe on a chair and stay up all night making phone calls. If no one answered, he would find cam girls on the internet to keep him company.<\/p>\n<p>At other times, Kestan said, Biden would go on late-night drives around Los Angeles, sometimes bringing strangers back to the hotel to party. Or he would join her poolside in the morning after a night out, collapsing onto a chaise longue with a double vodka.<\/p>\n<p>He had also turned her into a kind of personal assistant, sending her out to get money from the ATM to pay dealers. He told her that his money was her money, but sometimes he asked Kestan to spot him.<\/p>\n<p>One morning she woke up and Biden was gone. When she called him, he said he had rented another bungalow in the hotel to party with some people he had just met. Later, he disappeared for days, claiming he was checking into rehab. But Kestan, whom Biden had trusted with his passwords, saw that he was taking money out of the bank far from where he said he was.<\/p>\n<p>At other times, Biden seemed paranoid, blaming Kestan when he misplaced his laptop, and accusing her of speaking ill of him to her friends.<\/p>\n<p>Kestan knew Biden wouldn\u2019t change for her, but she was in love, and she kept traveling to see him: to Malibu, and finally, in November 2018, to Newburyport, Massachusetts, where Biden was undergoing ketamine therapy to treat his addiction. When she arrived, it was obvious it hadn\u2019t taken \u2014 he wanted to find powder cocaine he could cook into crack.<\/p>\n<p>Kestan drove him to Providence, Rhode Island, where she still had college connections who could sell it to them. In a hotel there, the two discussed English cultural theorist Mark Fisher and listened to \u201cRed Scare,\u201d an edgy cultural commentary podcast that would later have Kestan on as a guest.<\/p>\n<p>The next morning, he dropped her off at the Providence Amtrak station. It was the last time she would see him in person until she saw him in court this June.<\/p>\n<p>After they parted at the station, the pair began to fight bitterly over text, with Biden by turns lashing out and self-flagellating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wronged you,\u201d Biden wrote in a WhatsApp message. \u201cI intentionally hurt you. I am a bad man. You need to be away from me forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnow how much I am grieving the beauty that was our relationship,\u201d Kestan responded.<\/p>\n<p>Frequent texts became infrequent emails, and then communication mostly stopped.<\/p>\n<p>In the spring of 2019, Kestan reached out to Biden to congratulate him on his daughter\u2019s high school graduation, which she had seen on Instagram. When she didn\u2019t hear back, she sent him another message to make sure he was OK. Shortly after, Biden wrote to her for the last time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHi Zoe,\u201d Biden wrote in an email. \u201cI got married to the love of my life, and I\u2019m happier than I have ever been. I have begun a new life with my beautiful wife and ask you to please honor my privacy. Wish you well.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-laptop\"><b>The Laptop <\/b><\/h3>\n<p>In the months after Kestan stopped seeing Biden, she felt unmoored. She hadn\u2019t danced since the relationship started, and when she tried working again at Vivid Cabaret, she lasted only two shifts.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the WeedSlut collection was ready, but Kestan couldn\u2019t find the energy to market it. The brand she had spent years building didn\u2019t seem right anymore. It had nothing to do with Biden, and yet she felt it was linked to him. When Instagram took down her account for violating community guidelines, she didn\u2019t try to get it reinstated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI started not liking it anymore,\u201d she said. \u201cI was embarrassed by it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In October 2020, the New York Post reported that emails from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden contained incriminating evidence against him and his father, at the time the Democratic presidential nominee. The paper\u2019s claims about wrongdoing on the elder Biden\u2019s part were not substantiated, but as the story took off, the laptop \u2014 which contained thousands of images, videos and text messages from a time period that coincided with Kestan and Biden\u2019s relationship \u2014 became a media sensation.<\/p>\n<p>As explicit images from the laptop spread on social media, Kestan had two reactions. One was concern for her family: Anonymous accounts on Reddit and 4chan, for instance, had posted personal details about her parents and friends.<\/p>\n<p>The other was a strange sense of validation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow there\u2019s physical evidence that we spent that time together,\u201d Kestan said.<\/p>\n<p>The contents of the laptop also helped Kestan confirm suspicions she had throughout the relationship. Time stamps seemed to suggest that when Biden had told her he was checking into various rehabs, he was doing anything but.<\/p>\n<p>And through news reports, Kestan learned that Biden had fathered a child with an Arkansas woman while Kestan and Biden were together. Biden had told Kestan that she was the only person he had slept with since getting together with his brother\u2019s widow, Hallie Biden.<\/p>\n<p>But if these revelations made Kestan more ready to move on, national events wouldn\u2019t let her. Biden\u2019s laptop became the focus of investigations into his taxes and his purchase of a handgun, and Republicans in Congress had a field day with evidence of his tawdry life.<\/p>\n<p>In July 2023, during a hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee about the IRS investigation into Biden\u2019s taxes, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. held up a poster board covered in sexually explicit images of Biden, including one with Kestan, which made Kestan feel, as she put it, \u201cgross and angry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fox News posted a video segment about Greene\u2019s stunt on its website with a headline identifying Kestan as a \u201cprostitute,\u201d a job she has never had. Other publications identified her as Biden\u2019s \u201cstripper ex.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When a federal case charging Biden with illegally purchasing a firearm made its way to court this June, prosecutors called on Kestan to testify about their relationship. By the time she arrived at the Delaware courthouse, in a black blazer, Pucci scarf and oversize Celine sunglasses, Kestan was a player in a national drama. And Biden, who could once walk into a store without being disturbed, was now a celebrity, pilloried by the right as an embodiment of Democratic rot, pitied by many for his addiction and celebrated by sections of the internet as a kind of ironic loser-hero.<\/p>\n<p>In court, when Kestan identified Biden for the record, her famous ex \u2014 now sober and married \u2014 waved at her, and smiled.<\/p>\n<p>Her sweeping, colorful testimony included a detail about Biden\u2019s fondness for the indie band Fleet Foxes that spread widely online. It was also a rigorous chronology of Biden\u2019s drug use in her presence, which prosecutors used to establish that he had been addicted to crack when he applied for the gun and had lied about it on the application.<\/p>\n<p>Under oath, Kestan discussed his crack pipes and smoking schedule, the parade of dealers, the succession of hotels, his increasingly erratic behavior, the failed attempts at rehab.<\/p>\n<p>This was one reason she sometimes cut her trips to see him short: because, she testified, she couldn\u2019t handle seeing him in person not trying to get sober.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought that if I left,\u201d she said during her testimony, \u201che finally would.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-moving-on\"><b>Moving On <\/b><\/h3>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-6750824018aef-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-32445343\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-6750824018aef-scaled.jpg?width=200 200w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-6750824018aef-scaled.jpg?width=300 300w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-6750824018aef-scaled.jpg?width=400 400w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-6750824018aef-scaled.jpg?width=500 500w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-6750824018aef-scaled.jpg?width=600 600w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-6750824018aef-scaled.jpg?width=700 700w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-6750824018aef-scaled.jpg?width=800 800w, https:\/\/bdc2020.o0bc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/zoe-6750824018aef-scaled.jpg?width=900 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Kye Christensen-Knowles, left, painted a portrait of Ms. Kestan for a show last month at Lomex, a TriBeCa gallery.<i> \u2013 Rebecca Smeyne for The New York Times<\/i><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Days after Kestan testified, Biden was found guilty of three felony charges related to the handgun purchase. Then, on Sept. 5, Biden pleaded guilty to nine charges in a federal tax case against him.<\/p>\n<p>Until the president pardoned his son Sunday, reversing an earlier position that he would not do so, the younger Biden faced a maximum of 17 years in prison for the tax case, and 25 for the gun case, though he was unlikely to receive a sentence near that length.<\/p>\n<p>Kestan did not comment on the pardon. But she said Biden\u2019s plea had come as a relief: It spared her yet another testimony. And it closed a surreal and sometimes painful chapter in her life she hopes to move past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t have regrets about anything I did online or with Hunter,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to live that way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Kestan said, the relationship has cast a shadow over her in ways she didn\u2019t expect. She hasn\u2019t had a serious relationship since Biden, and she can\u2019t help wondering whether a succession of promising job interviews that did not turn into job offers has something to do with what happens when you search her name on Google.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was only a year of my life, but it doesn\u2019t feel like something that should have defined me for so long,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>After several years in the creative wilderness, Kestan has started a new home d\u00e9cor line, and she has been working as design director for decorative artist and designer Elizabeth Hayt.<\/p>\n<p>And she\u2019s stepping out again.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Kestan attended an opening at Lomex, an au courant Tribeca gallery, for Kye Christensen-Knowles, whom she met when they were college freshmen at the Rhode Island School of Design.<\/p>\n<p>Christensen-Knowles had included in his show a portrait of Kestan, along with ones portraying other members of the painter\u2019s milieu, like cult writer Dennis Cooper and art dealer Begum Yasar.<\/p>\n<p>Wearing pink Pucci tights and a nylon bodysuit, Kestan mingled with the fashionable crowd, some of whom had known her for many years. Like Kestan, they weren\u2019t totally sure what to make of her relationship with Biden.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander Shulan, who owns the gallery and is friendly with Kestan, called the relationship \u201cconfusing and strange,\u201d an uncanny example of the intermixing of cultural spheres.<\/p>\n<p>Christensen-Knowles described it as a challenge that Kestan was capable of overcoming. \u201cThis is an albatross that is necessary for her to confront so she can grow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He had painted Kestan in a pink skirt suit, heels and a pearl bracelet \u2014 as a Jackie Kennedy-esque political spouse. Her gaze is cast down, and her hair is gathered into disquieting tendrils.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe has an aura that has always struck me, an old-world grace and dignity to her beauty,\u201d Christensen-Knowles said. \u201cI was hoping to capture her how I see her: as a dignified subject with inherent power.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/03\/style\/zoe-kestan-hunter-biden.html\">The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"m-block m-generic-cta\t m-generic-cta--post-content\t m-generic-cta--dark\t m-generic-cta--homepage\t m-generic-cta--email-signup\t\t m-generic-cta-block-style--default \tt-amp__generic-cta\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"m-generic-cta__wrap\">\n<div class=\"m-generic-cta__content\">\n<h3 class=\"m-generic-cta__title\">Boston.com Today<\/h3>\n<p class=\"m-generic-cta__subtitle\">Sign up to receive the latest headlines in your inbox each morning.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><script>\n\t\tvar consent=\"grant\";\n\t\t\/* The above code is parsing the JSON data from the local storage and storing it in a variable. *\/\n\t\t\t\t\tconst onetrustStorageConsent = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem( 'consent_one_trust_bdc' ) );\n\t\t\tif ( ( onetrustStorageConsent !== null ) ) {\n\t\t\t\t\/* Checking to see if the user has consented to the use of cookies.\n\t\t\t\t* If they have not, it is deleting the cookie.\n\t\t\t\t* This will comment for now, until further notice.\n\t\t\t\t*\/\n\t\t\t\t\/\/if ( onetrustStorageConsent.C0002 === false ) {\n\t\t\t\t\/\/\tdocument.cookie=\"_fbp=;expires=Thu, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 UTC; path=\/; domain=.boston.com\";\n\t\t\t\t\/\/}\n\t\t\t\t\/* Checking if the user has given consent for the cookie C0002.\n\t\t\t\t* If the user has given consent, the variable consent will be set to 'grant'.\n\t\t\t\t* If the user has not given consent,the variable consent will be set to 'revoke'.\n\t\t\t\t* Documentation https:\/\/developers.facebook.com\/docs\/meta-pixel\/implementation\/gdpr\n\t\t\t\t*\/\n\t\t\t\tif ( onetrustStorageConsent.C0002 !== true ) {\n\t\t\t\t\tconsent=\"revoke\";\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n\t\t{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n\t\tn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n\t\tif(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n\t\tn.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n\t\ts.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n\t\t'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('consent', consent);\n\t\tfbq('init', '989222871864976');\n\t\tfbq('track', 'PageView');\n\t<\/script><script type=\"module\">\n\t\tvar consent=\"grant\";\n\t\t\/* The above code is parsing the JSON data from the local storage and storing it in a variable. *\/\n\t\t\tconst onetrustStorageConsent = JSON.parse(localStorage.getItem( 'consent_one_trust_bdc' ) );\n\t\t\t\/* Checking to see if the user has consented to the use of cookies.\n\t\t\t* If they have not, it is deleting the cookie.\n\t\t\t* This will comment for now, until further notice.\n\t\t\t*\/\n\t\t\t\/\/if ( onetrustStorageConsent.C0002 === false ) {\n\t\t\t\/\/\tdocument.cookie=\"_fbp=;expires=Thu, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 UTC; path=\/; domain=.boston.com\";\n\t\t\t\/\/}\n\t\t\t\/* Checking if the user has given consent for the cookie C0002.\n\t\t\t* If the user has given consent, the variable consent will be set to 'grant'.\n\t\t\t* If the user has not given consent,the variable consent will be set to 'revoke'.\n\t\t\t* Documentation https:\/\/developers.facebook.com\/docs\/meta-pixel\/implementation\/gdpr\n\t\t\t*\/\n\t\t\tif ( ( onetrustStorageConsent !== null ) && (onetrustStorageConsent.C0002 !== true ) ) {\n\t\t\t\tconsent=\"revoke\";\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()\n\t\t{n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}\n\t\t;if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n\t\tn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n\t\tt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n\t\tdocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n\t\tfbq('consent', consent);\n\t\tfbq('init', '813236348753005');\n\t\tfbq('track', \"PageView\");\n\t<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.boston.com\/news\/politics\/2024\/12\/04\/she-met-hunter-biden-one-night-at-a-club-then-she-fell-in-love\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Politics A chance meeting in December 2017 plunged Zo\u00eb Kestan, a downtown \u201cit\u201d girl and social media star, headlong into an unpredictable affair. 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