Lunden Roberts, the Arkansas woman who shares a daughter with Hunter Biden, is calling for the former president’s son to be arrested for allegedly failing to pay court-ordered child support, reopening a bitter legal saga that began with Biden refusing to even acknowledge the child was his.
In recent court filings, Roberts urged a judge to take immediate action to enforce existing orders, accusing Biden of ignoring his obligations. “Incarcerate him in the Independence County Detention Center as a civil penalty until he purges his contempt by complying with this court’s orders,” the motion read, arguing that lesser measures have repeatedly failed.
Hunter Biden’s baby mama calls for ex-first son to be arrested after failing to keep child support deal https://t.co/73mRvMf5IO pic.twitter.com/WyBwTedMks
— New York Post (@nypost) January 16, 2026
According to the motion, Hunter Biden initially maintained limited contact with his daughter, Navy Joan Roberts, bonding with her during several scheduled phone calls. That contact, Roberts claims, abruptly ended in 2024 after the release of her memoir, Out of the Shadows. The filing emphasizes that the book “neither disparaged nor derided” Biden, yet he allegedly ghosted his 5-year-old daughter shortly thereafter.
The motion further accuses Hunter Biden of creating “emotional trauma” for Navy after she attended a family wedding and realized her father would not walk with her down the aisle or dance with her at the reception. Lunden Roberts argues the moment crystallized for the child that her father would not publicly acknowledge or participate in her life the way he does with other family members.
Lunden Roberts contends Hunter Biden only responds in the child support dispute when “he has to do so,” arguing that incarceration would be the only effective way to force compliance and consistent engagement.
Despite the alleged heartbreak, the filing paints a poignant picture of Navy’s lingering hope. According to the motion, the child has said she “could not wait to get to heaven” so she could “be with (her) dad,” whom she described as someone who “lives far away and is really busy.” The motion adds, “To this day, MC1 has not heard again from her father, and this is baffling to [Roberts] and her family because Mr. Biden said that he had ‘lived in guilt and remorse every second of every day that [he] hasn’t been in [MC1’s] life.’”
BREAKING 🅱️: In a jaw-dropping disclosure, former U.S. President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, pocketed $10 million in Burisma bribes. Moreover, Biden has tried to bury explosive evidence that the Bidens took $5 million each to kill a Ukrainian corruption probe
Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/1wR9UaQjg5
— Right Scope 🇺🇸 (@RightScopee) January 15, 2026
Lunden Roberts, now 34, previously reached a settlement with Hunter Biden after years of courtroom sparring. Under that agreement, Biden pledged to turn over proceeds from a “specified number” of his art pieces to benefit their then–4-year-old daughter, identified in filings only as “MC [minor child] 1.” In exchange, Roberts dropped her request for Navy to take the Biden last name and reduced her requested monthly child support from $20,000 to $5,000.
The dispute dates back to Navy’s birth in August 2018 after what Roberts described as a brief relationship with Biden while he was battling addiction. Hunter Biden initially denied paternity, forcing Roberts into a protracted legal fight that included court-ordered DNA testing. The test confirmed he was the father, but the litigation continued as he contested financial responsibility and resisted giving the child his surname.
Roberts has also stated publicly that Joe Biden and Jill Biden have never met Navy Joan, and the child was excluded for years from public acknowledgment as a Biden grandchild.
Hunter Biden has claimed in court that he lacks steady income or traditional employment. At the same time, he reinvented himself as an artist, selling abstract paintings—made by blowing paint through a straw—for tens of thousands of dollars to anonymous buyers while his father was president. Roberts argues that his claimed hardship does not square with his lifestyle or the art proceeds promised to their daughter.
Lunden Roberts now seeks a modification of child support, arguing Hunter Biden’s income has changed significantly since the last ruling and that Navy has been shut out of the lifestyle enjoyed by the president’s other grandchildren. “MC1 has begun to realize that she does not have access to the same lifestyle as Mr. Biden’s other children, and that is not fair to MC1,” the motion stated. “It is axiomatic that no one can force Mr. Biden into being a good dad for MC1, but this court can make it so that MC1 has, at least, the same level of support as MC1’s younger half-brother,” a reference to Hunter’s son Beau, whom he shares with his current wife, Melissa Cohen.
