Vice-President Kamala Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff acknowledged Saturday in a statement to CNN that he had an affair during his first marriage after the alleged details of the relationship were published by a British tabloid.
“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side,” Emhoff said in a statement provided exclusively to CNN.
The statement comes after the Daily Mail reported that Emhoff had a relationship with one of his then-young daughter’s teachers, which resulted in the end of his first marriage.
The relationship and the circumstances around it were known four years ago to Joe Biden’s vetting committee as Harris was herself going through the running mate process before being picked for the ticket, a person familiar with the conversations told CNN. The person also said that Emhoff had told Harris about the affair well before they got married.
The relationship ended years before Emhoff began dating Harris.
The Daily Mail reported that the woman became pregnant and that, according to a close friend, she “did not keep the child.” The woman, whom CNN is not naming, did not return a voicemail on Saturday afternoon looking for comment.
Brian Fallon, a spokesperson for the Harris campaign, declined comment beyond the statement. Asked whether the campaign was disputing the basic facts reported by the Daily Mail, Fallon also declined comment.
Kerstin Emhoff said in a statement Saturday, “Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons, many years ago. He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend to me and I am really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala, and I have built together.”
Doug Emhoff has long regretted the circumstances and was aware that they could become public, a separate source familiar with the second gentleman said.
Emhoff’s two children with his first wife are now adults, and the family dynamic has developed into a friendly one, with Kerstin Emhoff speaking warmly about Harris as a stepmother on several occasions over the years and in the two weeks since Harris was abruptly elevated to the top of the Democratic ticket.
When video resurfaced of Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance criticizing Harris for not having children of her own, Kerstin Emhoff defended Harris as “loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present” and said she was grateful Harris was a part of their blended family.
“These are baseless attacks. For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with 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 attorney general.
In his own rapid entry into politics, Emhoff has become an important private adviser to Harris and is known for how gushingly he tends to speak about his wife. She often speaks warmly of him too, calling him “Dougie” in private and sometimes while at a microphone.
Even before Biden dropped out of the race, Emhoff had thrown himself onto the campaign trail for the ticket. That has stepped up even more in the two weeks since Biden withdrew. Several times in telling the story of finding out the news himself, Emhoff has said he was at an exercise class back in Los Angeles and away from his phone, and only after someone else showed him the news did he see that he had missed multiple calls from Harris urging him to call her.
“She’s stepped up and she’s going to lead us into the future. So I could not be more proud of her,” Emhoff said on one call with supporters days after Harris entered the race.
He has been fundraising and campaigning for her extensively since, including being the one to beat back at some of Trump’s attacks on his wife.
“That’s all he’s got?” Emhoff said at one event last week, after being asked about some of what the Republican nominee had said.
He also responded on Wednesday to Trump’s insistence that Harris had only ever identified with her Indian heritage until recently deciding to “turn Black,” calling the comments a distraction.
“We’ve got to focus on what they’re really trying to do, which is to destroy our country,” Emhoff said.
Harris is spending the weekend at their residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, completing vetting and interviews with the men she is considering to be her own running mate, with an announcement planned for early next week.
Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report
