The former wife of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff defended her ex after he confirmed he’d had an affair that contributed to their marriage’s demise.
“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions,” Emhoff said Saturday after a British tabloid dredged up the report. “I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side.”
The news was not new, as it had surfaced four years ago when now-President Joe Biden was vetting potential running mate Kamala Harris, now a presidential candidate in her own right.
Years after the affair and the marriage ended, Emhoff told Harris about it when they started dating, CNN reported. After the tabloid report, Emhoff’s ex, Kerstin Emhoff, said it was all water under the proverbial bridge.
“Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons, many years ago,” the filmmaker said in a separate statement. “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.”
Kerstin Emhoff has previously clapped back at criticisms of Harris’s supposedly childless state, saying that the vice president had been a wonderful “Momala” to the two now-grown kids the Emhoffs share. The original Emhoffs were married from 1992 to 2010. Harris and Doug Emhoff married in 2014, when the kids were teens. Cole is now 29 and Ella is 25.
“These are baseless attacks,” Kerstin Emhoff said last week. “For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.”
She was responding to the implication by Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance that women who have not borne children are somehow lacking. Besides spawning a litter of cat memes rife with hilarity, the 2021 Fox interview drew outrage from prominent celebrities, including actress Jennifer Aniston, who said she “truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States.”
With News Wire Services
