Ashley Biden is ready to talk trauma.
The press-averse first daughter — the only child of President Biden and first lady Jill Biden — is pulling back the curtain on her latest planned venture: a wellness space for formerly incarcerated women in Philadelphia to meditate and enjoy holistic therapies like infrared saunas and EMDR therapy.
Ashley, 41, told Elle she intends to serve women suffering from trauma by promoting the same remedies she used to fight PTSD after her half-brother, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer in 2015.
“I was able to get great treatment, and so I’ve been able to take some of those things that I’ve learned in therapy and use them as well,” Ashley said in the March 28 profile.
But it’s also drawing attention to her own rocky past.
Ashley, whose personal encounters with drugs date back to 1999, said she “never wanted to be in the public eye,” but felt compelled to share some of her experience as a social worker, including heading up Women’s Reentry Program support groups for Mural Arts Philadelphia.
“Hurt people hurt people,” Ashley said. “And if we don’t break that cycle, if we don’t heal, the hurt will continue.”
Ashley herself is no stranger to public controversy, with arrests dating back to her time at Tulane University, where she graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology.
In 1999, Ashley, then 18, was arrested for marijuana possession in New Orleans.
The case was dropped, but wasn’t expunged from her record because she “didn’t follow through,” Biden’s attorney previously said.
Ashley was a “hot freshman” at the time, according to former classmate Nat Berman, who claimed he bailed her out of jail during the September 1999 pot possession bust.
“She was very attractive,” Nat Berman told The Post in March 2009.
“Everybody at Tulane knew that she was a party girl,” Berman said. “She wore some pretty short shorts — a lot.”
In 2002, Ashley was busted again, this time in Chicago, for allegedly trying to obstruct a police officer during a brawl outside a bar.
The charges were later dropped.
Seven years later, with her father in the White House alongside President Obama, video circulated allegedly showing Ashley snorting cocaine at a March 2009 house party in Delaware.
The office of Vice President Biden — a staunch anti-drug crusader — refused to comment on the clip.
Ashley, meanwhile, was not charged.
Just days before the 2020 presidential election, Ashley was again thrust into headlines as a document that appeared to be her handwritten diary was published online, reportedly detailing a great deal of shocking personal information. (Last year, a Florida man and women pleaded guilty to stealing the diary and selling it for $40,000 to conservative outlet Project Veritas, which never published its contents as it could not authenticate them.)
One entry, dated Jan. 30, 2019, explored the writer’s uncontrollable carnal urges, the National File blog reported.
“I’ve had one of my hardest days — my sex drive is out of f–king control,” the diary reportedly reads. “Like literally, I am in heat … I know it’s not the healthiest way to deal with things but @ least it’s better than drugs.”
The diary, in which the author identified herself at least twice as Ashley Blazer Biden, also referenced “probably not appropriate” “showers with my dad” as a young girl.
“I can’t remember specifics but I do remember trauma,” Ashley’s diary reportedly reads.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr launched a probe into the theft of the diary at the request of the Biden family in October 2020, the New York Times reported.
Prosecutors said Ashley had stored the diary with “highly personal entries,” as well as tax records, a cellphone and data drive with private family photos, in a private Delray Beach, Florida, home where Harris was temporarily staying.
Ashley, who could not be reached for comment, did not discuss the diary with Elle, citing the ongoing investigation and her desire to remain focused while ignoring fervent right-wing critics.
“It used to anger me more,” she said. “But I’m over 40 now. I’m in my skin. I love who I am. I know my family. I adore them. So, all of the other s–t, excuse my language, is just noise.”
Craig Shirley, an author and conservative political consultant, said he believed Ashley’s profile was a thinly veiled attempt at rehabbing the Biden brand in the wake of Hunter’s notorious abandoned laptop.
“But it’s not going to work, it never works uphill,” Shirley said of a president benefitting from the public perception of his progeny — with President Kennedy and children John Jr. and Caroline being a lone exception, according to the author.
“It’s not going to cost him the election, but it’s certainly fodder for gossipmongers and radio talk shows,” Shirley said of the diary. “It’s just another embarrassing item in a long list of embarrassing items for the Biden family.”
Ashley’s planned wellness center in Philadelphia, where she lives with her husband, plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Howard Krein, comes as she leads a support group for previously incarcerated women through Mural Arts Philadelphia, Elle reported.
The nonprofit, which launched in 1987, bills itself as the nation’s “largest public art program,” responsible for more than 4,000 artworks citywide.
The organization later launched its Women’s Reentry Program in 2021, paying formerly jailed, imprisoned or women on probation $15 an hour to work on the public art projects while taking job readiness courses, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Jane Golden, Mural Arts Philadelphia’s executive director, praised Ashley as the right person for her next role, citing the first daughter’s background as executive director of the nonprofit Delaware Center for Justice.
“She’s very inspiring and dedicated,” Golden told The Post. “It’s really clear she loves this work — she really believes in creating a therapeutic environment and dealing with the trauma head on that so many of our constituents have been grappling with.”
Ashley has worked with the group’s reentry program for the past two years.
Details of the new space in North Philadelphia’s Poplar section are still being finalized, Golden said.
“It’s really important that we provide support to women as they move through life,” Golden said. “And that they feel they have a place that’s safe, where they can talk to someone and they can get support.”
