All About Kamala Harris' Husband, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff

Mar. 15, 2025

Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty

Harris previously told PEOPLE that two of the things she loves most about Emhoff are hissense of humor and patience, especially on stressful days.

“We’re talking about the free world,” she said in October 2020. “These are serious times, and the challenges are incredibly serious, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously in the context of our relationship. You just have to flow and know what’s really important.”

Though he’s Harris' biggest fan, Emhoff doesn’t aim to influence her policy or political decisions. “I’m her partner, I’m her best friend and I’m her husband. And that’s what I’m here for,” he told PEOPLE.

Emhoff has supported Harris throughout her vice presidency and continued to do so during her run in the 2024 presidential election. On Nov. 6, he was in the audience whenHarris delivered her concession speechafter she lost to former PresidentDonald Trump.

Here’s everything to know Kamala Harris' husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff.

He was a lawyer before becoming second gentleman and a teacher

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff on November 13, 2021 in Paris, France.Marc Piasecki/Getty

Marc Piasecki/Getty

Emhoff was born on Oct. 13, 1964, in Brooklyn, N.Y., andspent his childhoodin Old Bridge and Matawan, N.J., with his parents Mike and Barbara, as well as brother Andy and sister Jamie. When he was a teenager, his family moved to southern California.

Emhoff graduated from the University of California, Northridge and received his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. He then became an entertainment, sports and media lawyer, opening his own firm in 2000, which was sold to Venable, LLP, in 2006.

When he and Harris moved to Washington, D.C., in 2016, Emhoffbecame a partner at the firm DLA Piper, where his clients included the pharmaceutical company Merck, arms dealer Dolarian Capital and Walmart, according toThe New York Times.

After Harris announced her primary candidacy, Emhoff took a leave of absence from his firm.The New York Timesreportedthat he announced his resignation from the firm in November 2021, ahead of Harris' inauguration as vice president.

In addition to his role as second gentleman, Emhoff hastaught at Georgetown University Law Centersince 2021.

“Look: It’s odd the second gentleman is their teacher. But we kind of dispensed with that … maybe five minutes in the first class,” he said. “Now, it’s just they want to learn, they want to be great lawyers and I’m trying to impart to them experiences as a lawyer.”

He and Harris met on a blind date

Kamala Harris and Douglas Emhoff.Kamala Harris Instagram

Kamala Harris Instagram

One of Harris' close friends, PR consultant Chrisette Hudlin, set Harris and Emhoff up on their first blind date in 2013. (While Harris said Hudlin told her to go into the potential romance with an open mind, Harrislater admittedthat she Googled Emhoff before they started dating.)

Emhoff and Harris first got to know each other over text, which Emhoff initiated while he was at a Los Angeles Lakers game. The next day, Emhoff left Harris what he told PEOPLE was a “ridiculous voicemail,” which she still has saved and plays for him on their anniversary every year.

Emhoff said he didn’t think he’d ever hear from Harris again after leaving the message, but she told PEOPLE she found it “adorable.”

In her memoirThe Truths We Hold: An American Journey, Harris recalled that Emhoff was straightforward with her after their first date. “The morning after our first date, Doug emailed me with a list of his available dates for the next couple of months,” she wrote.

The email read: “I’m too old to play games or hide the ball. I really like you, and I want to see if we can make this work.”

He was married before

Kamala Harris, Doug Emhoff, Cole Emhoff, Kerstin Emhoff.Kerstin Emhoff/Instagram

Emhoff was previously married to film producerKerstin Emhofffrom 1992 to 2010. Emhoff and Kerstin remain friends, and he stayed on as her lawyer and business adviser after their split and until he left his practice ahead of Harris' inauguration as vice president.

Kerstin and Harris are close as well, even offering to help with her 2020 presidential election campaign, perMarie Claire.

Kerstin toldTIMEthat one way Emhoff is different in his marriage to Harris is that he plans trips for the couple. “Of course he’s a better husband [to Harris], and that’s great,” she said. “That’s how it should be.”

He and Harris took their relationship and blended family slowly

Cole Emhoff, Douglas Emhoff, Kamala Harris, and Ella Emhoff pose for a photo.Douglas Emhoff Instagram

Douglas Emhoff Instagram

Emhoff was divorced and Harris was a child of divorce, so they took their time letting their relationship develop organically, Harriswrote in a 2019Elleessay. They were especially careful about introducing Harris to Emhoff’s children with Kerstin: daughterElla— an artist, designer and model — and son Cole, who works as a producer and crew in Hollywood.

“Doug and I put a lot of thought into when and how I would first meet the kids,” she wrote, adding that when she finally did meet the pair, she “had butterflies in [her] stomach.”

“Cole and Ella could not have been more welcoming,” Harris recalled. “They are brilliant, talented, funny kids who have grown to be remarkable adults. I was already hooked on Doug, but I believe it was Cole and Ella who reeled me in.”

Harris has a close relationship with Cole, Ella and Kerstin. “One of the keys to my relationship with Cole and Ella is their mom,” Harrissaid ahead of the 2020 election. “The thing about blended families — if everyone approaches it in the way that there’s plenty of love to share, then it works.”

Ella and Cole call Harris “Momala,“a combinationof her first name and a Yiddish word for “little mother.”

“It’s the name the kids gave me, andI wear it proudly,” Harris told PEOPLE in November 2023.

He and Harris' wedding was small

Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff on their wedding day.Kamala Harris/Instagram

Emhoff proposed to Harris in her apartment on March 27, 2014, after about a year of dating,according toThe San Francisco Chronicle.

EmhofftoldMarie Clairethat he asked Harris to marry him “in the middle of a decidedly unromantic conversation (she was deliberating between chicken or shrimp pad thai).”

He supported Harris throughout the 2020 election cycle

When she withdrew from the primary in December 2019, he remained a pillar of support. “She made that decision, and I would have supported whatever she decided, but I’m not her political adviser,” Emhoff toldMarie Claire. “I’m her husband. And so my role was to be there for her, to love her, to have her back, to talk it through, to help her.”

When she was named Biden’s running mate in the 2020 race, their schedules got more hectic than ever before that point. The couple told PEOPLE that theystayed connected throughout their busy dayson the campaign trail and that some of their quality time together was simply spent making itineraries.

“We are a partnership. It’s a lot of planning,” Emhoff said. “Typically, we get up early, we work out and then we sit down and it’s like, ‘Let’s have a meeting and figure out how we’re going to get through these next couple of days.’ "

He made history as the first second gentleman in more ways than one

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff host an event on September 09, 2023 in Washington, D.C.Kevin Dietsch/Getty

Kevin Dietsch/Getty

Harris made history as the first woman, first Indian American and first Black vice president, but Emhoff also broke barriers as the first second gentleman.

“I am honored to be the first male spouse of an American President or Vice President,” he wroteon X(formerly Twitter). “But I’ll always remember generations of women have served in this role before me — often without much accolade or acknowledgment. It’s their legacy of progress I will build on as Second Gentleman.”

Emhoff is also the first Jewish second gentleman, and he made history when helit the White House menorah for Hanukkahin 2021. President Biden said at the event, “This is a White House tradition, but for the first time in history, it is a family tradition.” Emhoff also lit the national menorah for the first time the same year.

In July 2023, Emhoffmade history again, that time as the highest-profile American official to visit Samoa.

He fights toxic masculinity and antisemitism

Vice President Kamala Harris and husband Doug Emhoff at the Capital Pride Parade on June 12, 2021 in Washington, D.C.Anna Moneymaker/Getty

Anna Moneymaker/Getty

Aside from the typical duties of supporting the vice president, one thing Emhoff wants to accomplish in his role as second gentleman isfighting toxic masculinity.

“Now that I’m in the role, and you really see not all men naturally would do this, and would push back, and there’s this toxicity, this, masculine idea of what a man is that’s out there that’s not correct,” hetold CNN. “It’s something I just want to push back on.”

Emhoff said that his father, a women’s shoe designer, helped him develop healthier and more diverse ideas about what masculinity means.

“Masculinity is loving your family, caring about your family and being there for your family,” he explained. “We’re kind of mixing up this concept that if somehow a man shows kindness or empathy or consideration for others, that somehow [is] not masculine, and that is just not okay. That is just not true.”

Emhoff has also been a vocal opponent of antisemitism andvisited the Holocaust Museumat Auschwitz on Holocaust Remembrance Day in January 2023.

He has three tattoos

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff at the Elysee Palace on November 11, 2021 in Paris, France.Kiran Ridley/Getty

Kiran Ridley/Getty

He has daughter Ella and son Cole’s initials tattooed on the inside of his wrist, which hetold CNNwas to serve as “a visceral reminder of them” after his divorce from Kerstin.

Emhoff also has a tattoo of a dragon symbol to mark his and Harris' birth year of 1964, which was the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac.

He and Harris start and end their days together

Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff at a White House reception on February 11, 2023 in Washington D.C.Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

“We try to approach those moments as husband and wife, not vice president and second gentleman,” Emhoff told PEOPLE in November 2023. “It’s really ourtime to be a couple… time talking about kids, family and very little about the workings of our days.”

source: people.com