Pals of Melissa Cohen were stunned that she married Hunter Biden — because they said she was in a long-term relationship with someone else just weeks earlier.
We’re told that the South African beauty started dating Malibu real estate developer Rob Mendez on July 4, 2017, and that they were living together until April of this year. After they split, the pair continued to “hang out” into May.
So when the news about her wedding to Biden broke, there was a flurry of emails between friends of the former couple, sharing the story. “Wow,” said one, “She just broke up with Rob!” They added, “So I’m quite shocked by this being so sudden after their breakup.”
Biden — the son of 2020 Democrat frontrunner Joe Biden — was, until recently, dating his brother Beau’s widow, Hallie. Cohen was also previously married in 2011.
Cohen and Hunter married on May 16 after knowing each other for 10 days.
Reached for comment, Mendez told us that it was “a very, very good relationship. The best I’ve ever had.”
He said that Cohen had indeed been close with his three children, 10, 11 and 13. “She actually turned our house around,” he said, crediting Cohen with getting the family eating nutritious food to introducing a “properness” to the household.
He said of her marriage to Biden, “She found love and she’s happy,” adding, “She’s honest to God an amazing girl; extremely intelligent.”
He said that they separated amicably because “marriage and kids were in her future, but for me they just aren’t” and because he wanted to focus on his kids before they grow up and leave home.
Mendez says he has “nothing but love” for Cohen.