Hunter Biden and the mother of one of his five children, Lunden Alexis Roberts, have settled their long-running dispute over child support payments, according to a report by the New York Post. The report of the settlement, coming on the same day as the president’s troubled son agreed to plead guilty to federal tax evasion charges, suggests Mr. Biden fils is seeking to put his various legal woes behind him.

An anonymous source who spoke with the Post said that Mr. Biden and Ms. Roberts recently reached an agreement that would slash child support payments from Mr. Biden to the former stripper to under $5,000 per month. Previously, he had been paying Ms. Roberts $20,000 per month. In total, Mr. Biden’s legal team recently told a judge in Independence County, Arkansas that the first son had paid Ms. Roberts $750,000 since the child’s paternity was established in 2020. 

Ms. Roberts also dropped her lawsuit to change the last name of her daughter Navy Joan, 4, to Biden. 

It’s unclear what led Ms. Roberts to agree to such a drastic reduction in payments. Her attorneys had only recently been citing Mr. Biden’s luxurious lifestyle in Malibu, California as evidence he should be able to pay Ms. Roberts handsomely.

The acrimonious legal proceedings between Mr. Biden and his former paramour garnered increasing attention in recent months after Mr. Biden was forced to attend an Arkansas hearing in-person, was ordered to disclose a detailed picture of his finances, and was threatened with imprisonment multiple times. 

The presiding jurist, Judge Holly Meyer, issued an order on June 7 requiring Mr. Biden to turn over “relevant financial information” related to his child support payments and changes to his income. Mr. Biden had sued to reduce his child support payments, saying there has been a “substantial material change” in his income and he could no longer afford the $20,000 per month payments. 

Judge Meyer wrote in her June 7 order that the first son would face serious consequences if he failed to appear or not turn over financial information. Had he not followed her explicit instructions, Mr. Biden would have faced six months in prison for civil contempt, six months in prison for criminal contempt, and a $20,000 fine payable to Ms. Roberts. 

Ms. Roberts’ legal team asked Judge Meyer to jail Mr. Biden fils on multiple occasions, including in April when they argued that Mr. Biden was “playing games with this court.” They asked that the judge “incarcerate the defendant in the Cleburne County Detention Center until he complies with this court’s orders and answers discovery.” 

Ms. Roberts and Mr. Biden met at a Washington D.C. gentleman’s club in 2018 where the former was working as a stripper. Following the child’s conception, Mr. Biden consistently ignored Ms. Roberts when she reached out to him via text message. 

According to the text messages — which were first disclosed by the Washington Free Beacon — Mr. Biden in 2018 ignored multiple texts from Ms. Roberts telling him about the baby’s birth, and soon afterward cut her off financially.

“Baby was born Aug 28,” Ms. Roberts wrote to Mr. Biden. “Beautiful & Healthy. If you ever become curious and want to know more I can send pictures, details, or whatever you may request. I know that’s a long shot and you’d much rather avoid the whole situation, but just wanted you to know the door is always open for you in the baby’s life.” 

Mr. Biden never responded to that or any other message.

After the child’s birth, according to the text messages, Mr. Biden texted his personal assistant, Katie Dodge, telling her to “take Lunden off payroll.” For months, he had been paying Ms. Roberts as an employee of one of his companies, though she did no work for him and they had no contact. In the same text exchanges with Ms. Dodge, Mr. Biden refers to Ms. Roberts as “what’s her name.”

In 2020, she successfully petitioned a court for a paternity test on Mr. Biden. The first son did not contest the results, which proved the child was his. He has since said he was constantly drunk and high at the time the child was conceived and cannot remember the sexual encounter. 

Since his affair with Ms. Roberts, Mr. Biden has remarried, to a South African filmmaker, Melissa Cohen, with whom he has a son named after his late brother, Beau. He also has three children with his former wife, Kathleen.