Emhoff acknowledges an affair during the first marriage after a tabloid report

CNN
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Vice President Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, admitted in a statement to CNN on Saturday that he had an affair during his first marriage after alleged details of the affair were published by a British tabloid.

“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times because of my actions. I took responsibility and in the years since, we've worked through things as a family and come out stronger for each other band,” Emhoff said in a statement provided exclusively to CNN.

The statement comes later the Daily Mail reported that Emhoff had an affair with one of his then-young daughter's teachers, which led to the end of his first marriage.

The relationship and the circumstances surrounding it became known four years ago to Joe Biden's vetting committee, as Harris herself was going through the running mate process before being chosen for the ticket, a person told CNN familiar with the conversations. The person also said Emhoff had told Harris about the affair long before they married.

The relationship ended years before Emhoff began dating Harris.

The Daily Mail reported that the woman became pregnant and, according to a close friend, “did not keep the child.” The woman, whom CNN is not naming, did not return a voice message Saturday afternoon seeking comment.

Brian Fallon, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, declined comment beyond the statement. Asked whether the campaign disputed the basic facts reported by the Daily Mail, Fallon also declined to comment.

Kerstin Emhoff said in a statement Saturday: “Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a number of reasons many years ago. He is a great father to our children, he remains a great friend to me and I am very proud of the warm and supportive blended family that Doug, Kamala and I have built together.”

Doug Emhoff has long regretted the circumstances and was aware they could be made public, said a separate source familiar with Mr. No. 2.

Emhoff's two children with his first wife are now adults, and the family dynamic has become a friendly one, with Kerstin Emhoff speaking fondly of Harris as a stepmother on several occasions over the years and during the two weeks since Harris was abruptly elevated to stepmother status. the top of the Democratic ticket.

When video of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance criticizing Harris for not having children resurfaced, Kerstin Emhoff defended Harris as “loving, nurturing, fiercely protective and ever-present” and said she was grateful Harris was a part of it. of his mixed family. .

“These are baseless attacks. For more than 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a parent to Doug and I,” Kerstin Emhoff said in a statement to CNN in July.

That first marriage ended in 2009. Doug Emhoff married Harris in 2014, when he was working as an entertainment lawyer in Los Angeles and she was California's attorney general.

In his rapid entry into politics, Emhoff has become an important private adviser to Harris and is known for the way he tends to talk about his wife. She also often speaks warmly of him, calling him “Dougie” in private and sometimes while on the mic.

Even before Biden dropped out of the race, Emhoff had thrown himself into the campaign for the ticket. That has increased even more in the two weeks since Biden stepped down. Several times in telling the story of finding out the news himself, Emhoff has said that he was in an exercise class in Los Angeles and away from his phone, and only after someone showed him the news did he see that he had lost several calls from Harris asking him to call her.

“She's stepped up and she's going to lead us into the future. So I couldn't be more proud of her,” Emhoff said on a call with supporters days after Harris entered the race.

Since then, he has been fundraising and campaigning for her, including standing up to some of Trump's attacks on his wife.

“Is that all there is to it?” Emhoff said at an event last week, after being asked about some of what the Republican candidate had said.

He also responded Wednesday to Trump's insistence that Harris had only identified with his Indian heritage until recently when he decided to “go black,” calling the comments a distraction.

“We need to focus on what they're really trying to do, which is to destroy our country,” Emhoff said.

Harris is spending the weekend in residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, completing research and interviews with the men he considers his own running mate, with an announcement expected early next week.

Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.

This story has been updated.