The Bidens have never acknowledged the seventh grandchild in their family, but behind closed doors, they know exactly who she is.

The New York Times - having finally got around to reporting on Hunter Biden's spurned lovechild - claims that Biden officials are instructed never to mention the four-year-old girl.

Aides have been told at "strategy meetings" that the Bidens have six grandkids, not seven.

Biden's sick secret

The Times article said that Hunter's lovechild "is aware that her father is Hunter Biden and that her paternal grandfather is the president of the United States" and that "she speaks about both of them often, but she has not met them."

That's no accident. The Bidens have studiously ignored any mention of the girl, including in White House Christmas decorations.

"I have six grandchildren, and I’m crazy about them. And I speak to them every single day. Not a joke," Biden said in April.

The Bidens have long sought to uphold a superficial image of middle-class "decency," but Hunter Biden's reckless exploits have made that a challenging job.

The family scored a major PR win when Biden's baby mama, a former Washington D.C. stripper who now lives in her native Arkansas, agreed to settle their child support case for an undisclosed amount - and drop her bid to have the baby take the Biden name.

So much "love"....

Hunter met the girl's mother, Lunden Roberts, while he was in a sexual relationship with his widowed sister-in-law, Hallie Biden. In his memoir, Hunter Biden infamously copped to having no memory of meeting Roberts during his drug-and-sex binges.

While it appears Hunter never will meet his out-of-wedlock daughter, he has agreed to give her some of the paintings from his so-called art career.

The strained effort to ignore Biden's seventh grandkid is all part of an elaborate game of make pretend in which the media has long played an active role, overlooking serious signs that Biden is in cognitive decline and evidence of his family's decadence and financial corruption.

The cover-up has continued with an outpouring of sentimentality about Biden's "love" for his son, who received a sweetheart plea deal that many suspect was politically orchestrated.

Joe Biden's conscious efforts to ignore his unwanted granddaughter certainly don't reflect much love - or even the lesser virtue of "decency."