Doug Emhoff admits affair contributed to breakdown of first marriage

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Second-time gentleman Doug Emhoff admitted Saturday that he had an extramarital affair several years ago that contributed to the breakdown of his first marriage.

“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through difficult times because of my actions,” Emhoff said in a statement first reported by CNN. “I took responsibility and in the years that followed, we worked through it as a family and emerged stronger.”

He issued a statement after the Daily Mail reported the matter.

The team that vetted Vice President Kamala Harris before President Joe Biden selected her as his 2020 vice presidential running mate knew about the affair, according to a person familiar with the events who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive situation. Harris knew about the affair before she married Emhoff, the person said.

Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, takes part in a panel discussion with Jewish leaders on the rise of anti-Semitism and efforts to combat hate in the United States at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington, December 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Emhoff and Harris met on a blind date in 2013 and married the following year. It was her first marriage and his second. Harris’ stepchildren, Ella and Cole Emhoff, were teenagers when their father remarried.

Kerstin Emhoff spoke positively of Harris as a “co-parent” to her daughters and as “loving, caring, fiercely protective and always there.” She issued a statement in support of her ex-husband after he admitted to having an affair.

“Doug and I decided to end our marriage for different reasons many years ago,” she said. “He is a wonderful father to our children, he is still a wonderful friend to me, and I am truly proud of the warm and supportive patchwork family that Doug, Kamala and I have built together.”

Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this article.