The Messy Rumors Circling About Kamala Harris' Husband Doug Emhoff

Kamala Harris' husband, Doug Emhoff, has earned praise for putting his wife's ambitions before his. When the Joe Biden-Harris ticket won the 2020 presidential election, Emhoff quit his lawyer position at the law firm DLA Piper to support her role as vice president. As the first second gentleman in U.S. history, Emhoff put the spotlight on gender equality and shattered antiquated notions of what it means to be a husband. Emhoff not only embraced his new role and decisions but promoted them.

"I really decided to lean in on this issue of men supporting women, professionally and personally, so they can succeed, even if that means stepping away from my own career," he told children and teenagers during a 2022 event, according to The 19th. But not everyone agreed that Emhoff's rhetoric was genuine. In the months leading up to the 2024 election, in which Harris ran for president, a series of accusations against him raised serious questions regarding his feminism and dedication to uplifting women.

The rumors claimed he had displayed violent behavior against a former girlfriend and painted a grim picture of his workplace behavior when it came to female staffers. Another rumor turned out to be partially true, as Emhoff admitted to being a less-than-ideal husband to his first wife — behavior that was partly responsible for the marriage's demise. Harris ignored the reports throughout the campaign, while Emhoff called them a smokescreen intended to hurt her. Whether true or not, the rumors about Emhoff were pretty messy. 

A year before Doug Emhoff met Kamala Harris, he reportedly showed his violent and jealous side while in a three-month relationship with a New York lawyer. The incident is said to have happened in May 2012, when they were in France for the Cannes Film Festival. Emhoff and the unnamed woman were waiting in a long line to get a cab late at night when she approached the valet to ask if he would bump them if she paid him 100 euros.

While negotiating, Emhoff's girlfriend placed her hand on the valet's shoulder. Emhoff darted from his spot in line and reportedly hit the woman in the face. "He hauled up and slapped her so hard she spun around. She said she was in utter shock," a friend of the woman told the Daily Mail in 2024, recalling what Emhoff's girlfriend told her. A different friend said he received a call as soon as the pair got in the cab. "My impression is that he had a lot to drink. She was sobbing, but she wasn't slurring her words," he recalled, revealing that she told the story while sitting next to Emhoff.

The woman originally declined to speak to the outlet but changed her mind a few weeks later. "He's being held out to be the antithesis of who he actually is," she told the Daily Mail, choosing to remain anonymous. Emhoff denied the accusations. "Any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false," his rep told Semafor. 

Some of Doug Emhoff's colleagues at Venable, the law firm he headed between 2006 and 2017, didn't have many nice things to say about their former boss. They accused him of sexist and inappropriate behavior toward female lawyers. He reportedly excluded women from office cocktail parties, used foul language to refer to female staff, and withdrew work benefits from women who didn't respond to his advances.

Emhoff also reportedly bragged about humiliating his female subordinates. After a female partner opened his office door after knocking, Emhoff yelled at her to get out and later gloated to management about doing so. "They were aghast. He's an a**hole. He told them how he 'put her in her place.' A misogynist, that's who does that," a former staffer told the Daily Mail in 2024. Female workers reportedly felt they had to flirt back with him if they wanted to work their way up in the firm.

The consequences were wide-ranging. "If you weren't flirty back or didn't respond positively then you were on his s*** list," one staffer said. Another contended he openly picked favorites and wasn't shy about it. "Usually it was young, pretty girls. And he would prefer for them to ride with him [to events]. He would get a limo," the former colleague said. Not everyone's experience with Emhoff was negative, though. "[He] had a genuine interest in the firm and the younger folks in the firm," a female staffer said.

Doug Emhoff's marriage to Kamala Harris isn't his first rodeo. Before he wed the former vice president, Emhoff was married to Kerstin Mackin (seen above), the mother of his two children. But Emhoff wasn't the perfect husband. In August 2024, the Daily Mail reported he cheated on her with a woman named Najen Naylor. Naylor, who worked as the nanny for Mackin and Emhoff's children, reportedly got pregnant but didn't keep the pregnancy.

Mackin reportedly filed for divorce after she found out about the affair in 2009. Shortly after the report came to light, Emhoff admitted to cheating on her and acknowledged it played a role in the divorce. "During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions," he told CNN in a statement. "I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side."

Mackin took the high road and refused to pin the affair as the sole reason for the end of their marriage. She also praised Emhoff's attributes as a father and friend. "I am really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala, and I have built together," she said in her statement, showcasing the unusual relationship Harris has with Emhoff's ex-wife. Mackin has also shared that Emhoff learned from his mistakes. "He's a better husband [to Harris], and that's great," she told Time. 

As the controversies about Doug Emhoff hit the media one after the other ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Kamala Harris remained tight-lipped. But she reportedly partly blamed her husband for her loss to Donald Trump that November. "Doug did Kamala no favors during the election — frankly, he looked like a hypocritical a** after the bombshells that he had got his child's nanny pregnant while married to his first wife and assaulted his ex-girlfriend on the heels of his 'I am woman' crusade," a source told the Daily Mail in 2025.

Emhoff's announcement that he had accepted a position with the law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York City didn't help the cause, as it added fuel to the rumors that Emhoff and Harris might be headed toward divorce. Officially, though, Emhoff will split his time between both coasts. Emhoff was previously seen touring luxury apartments in the Big Apple without Harris. "I see the signs that all is not hunky dory in the Harris household," the Daily Mail source said.

Harris is used to associating with people who help propel her career, not the opposite. "But what does Doug do for her now?" the insider added. Emhoff previously attempted to dismiss the onslaught against him as an effort by conservatives to influence the election. "It's all a distraction. It's designed to try to get us off our game," Emhoff said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" in October 2024.