An arbitrary encounter back in the final month of 2017 meant that socialite and internet sensation Zoë Kestan, a notable character in the downtown scene, found herself inadvertently embroiled in an erratic romance. In her initial interaction with Hunter Biden, she was oblivious of his identity. His father, Joseph R. Biden Jr, wasn’t a public figure at that time, and Kestan wasn’t someone who kept herself updated with contemporary news. As far as she was concerned, finishing her shift at Vivid Cabaret, a well-known spot in Midtown Manhattan’s strip club scene, Biden was simply another high-profile customer capable of reserving a secluded room in the early morning.
Kestan, then a popular figure among the downtown crowd, a budding fashion designer, and a high-end social media influencer, was completely unaware that her journey up the lift to the club’s penthouse was set to radically shift her existence. An eleven-month romantic encounter was about to unfold with a man whose lifestyle habits would end up being the focus of public fascination. Her connection with the suave, sharply dressed patron would unexpectedly culminate in graphic images of Kestan being circulated widely courtesy of Biden’s notorious laptop, propelling her to a sensational media figure who unwittingly found herself a major player in media speculation.
In the wake of this tumultuous affair, Kestan was compelled to testify in a federal court during the spring season, sharing her experience as one of the astute witnesses to Biden’s drug habits. This court appearance was also attended by a number of his previous romantic interests. The unexpected popularity she gained was drastically different from what she had envisaged. Facing the sudden clash of her local celebrity status with Biden’s nation-wide infamy induced a sense of identity crisis in her.
Looking back to the December night when Kestan first met Biden, she had no inkling of who he was. Not because she was ignorant, on the contrary, she wasn’t interested in politics. Her encounter with Biden on her work shift at the Vivid Cabaret, Manhattan’s renowned strip club, was not unusual. To her, Biden, who had managed to book a private room in the early hours, was just another client with influence.
For Kestan, then 24 years old, an emerging designer and a social media icon with a heavy downtown fan-following, it was just another work day. Little did she know, she was heading towards an eleven-month long intense and turbulent relationship with a man who would later be under the public eye for his questionable choices. The relationship, which began inconspicuously, ended with Kestan’s personal images becoming a public spectacle all over the internet, owing to Biden’s recklessly managed laptop.
The incident caused Kestan to become an unwilling participant in partisan-media frenzy, subjecting her to unwanted attention and scrutiny. This compelled Kestan, a profound witness to Biden’s uncontrolled substance abuse, to step into the federal court as a testifier along with several of Biden’s past romantic liaisons. This involvement came seven years post their first meeting, and even today Kestan, aged 31, is grappling with the aftermath of her experience.
Her rise to fame turned out to be far removed from what she had initially imagined. The fallout of the clash between her local prominence and Biden’s widely discussed ignominy left her dazed and in a state of self-doubt.