Joe Biden tells Howard Stern he considered suicide after his family died

Joe Bidenopens up about his mental health struggles… saying he once contemplated suicide at a particularly difficult time – but his children saved him.

POTUS sat down for an interview with Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show Friday and talked about his first wife Neilia and their baby daughter dying in a car accident in 1972… admitting he briefly considered suicide.

Biden says you don’t have to be crazy to consider it…adding that he even thought about jumping from the Delaware Memorial Bridge…but ultimately decided against it because he had two other children, Beautiful And Hunterthink about.

JB also says he almost drowned in his grief after Neilia’s death… regularly pulling out a bottle of scotch, but never taking a sip. Biden often talks about abstaining from alcohol due to rampant alcoholism in his family.

46-year-old says he never thought he could find happiness again – but everything changed when he started dating Jill Biden …something he says his sons were closely involved in at the time.

There’s more… Joe also opened up about his younger years during the interview… admitting he once got hit by a bully in the neighborhood – and his mother told him to retaliate, which he did. Biden says he ended up bloodying the child and his mother gave him 25 cents.

Biden’s interview took place a day after the New York Times made a statement lambasting him for avoiding media interviews. So…maybe a little damage control here.

Either way, Biden is letting voters see a whole new side of him as the election approaches. We’ll have to wait and see if this new honesty pays off.