Hunter Biden's ex-wife says not being offered Secret Service protection reinforced her feeling that it was 'Biden blood only' while she was in the family

Kathleen Buhle with Hunter Biden, her then-husband, seen at an event in Washington, D.C., in 2016. Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for World Food Program USA

• Kathleen Buhle wrote in her book that not coming under Secret Service protection was a "sore point."
• She wrote about how her husband and children had a detail assigned to them, but not her.
• Buhle wrote that the exclusion made her feel like she "was not 'family'" or of "Biden blood."

Hunter Biden's ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, wrote in her book that she felt excluded from the Biden family after not being covered under the Secret Service's protection.

In an excerpt from Buhle's upcoming book, "If We Break: A Memoir of Marriage, Addiction, and Healing," which was reported on by The Guardian, she detailed a 2009 meeting with a Secret Service agent before Joe Biden took office as vice president.

"Hunter and the girls will all have a detail assigned to them. Two agents with them 24 hours a day," the Secret Service agent told Buhle, per her book, adding that she would be "picked up and included in any plan" in case of an emergency.

Per The Guardian, Buhle wrote that she was "embarrassed" by the news. "Did this mean I was less important than my husband and my kids? What I heard in his words: I was not truly a Biden," she wrote.

Buhle's conversation with the Secret Service agent also made her recall an incident in which she was excluded from a family photo by her husband's aunt, who asked for a picture with "Biden blood only," she wrote, per the outlet.

According to Buhle's book, she later asked her husband to turn down Secret Service coverage, but he did not, telling her: "Kathleen, this is how it has always been. It isn't personal. In-laws have never had protection." 

While she understood the situation, Buhle wrote that the lack of Secret Service protection "remained a sore point" for her. Per The Guardian, she also recalled asking her husband not to walk in front of her as it would cause his security detail to do the same.

"It was another reminder that I was not 'family,' an echo of the call to have me step out of the picture. Biden blood only," Buhle wrote, per the outlet.

"Maybe some part of me knew that soon I was going to have to fight as hard as I ever had just to stay in my marriage," she added, per The Guardian.

Buhle was married to Hunter Biden for 24 years, during which he had an affair with his brother's widow, Hallie Biden. The couple, who have three daughters, split in 2017.

The Secret Service's website states that it protects the president, vice-president, and their immediate families but does not outline protection plans beyond those individuals. Hunter Biden is now back under the protection of the Secret Service, which is paying over $30,000 a month to protect him at his home in Malibu.