When Vice President Kamala Harris started dating her now-husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, she said she had to teach him what it meant to come from a divorced family.
“When Doug and I started dating – his parents have been married for over 60 years – I had to explain to him what it’s like to be a child of divorced parents, including that it was very important to me that I knew what he and my relationship would be before I formed a relationship with the kids,” Harris said in a nearly hourlong interview on “All the Smoke,” a popular basketball podcast hosted by former NBA stars Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes.
The episode was taped last week and released on Monday.
Ella Emhoff appears at a rally for her stepmother Sen. Kamala Harris, announcing Harris’ presidential campaign in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 27, 2019. Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign appearance Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, in Las Vegas. Cole Emhoff introduces his father Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff during the Democratic National Convention Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, in Chicago.
AP Photo/Tony Avelar/Sam Morris/Paul Sancya
Harris said she intentionally waited until she knew her relationship with Emhoff was “real” before meeting his children, Ella and Cole.
“Then we became thick as thieves,” Harris said. “I love those children. They are my children.”
Harris has faced partisan attacks on the campaign trail from some high-profile Republicans for not having biological children of her own.
During a campaign event with former President Donald Trump, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested Harris “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble,” while Sanders’ own kids are a “permanent reminder of what’s important” who “keep me humble.”
JD Vance’s infamous “childless cat ladies” remark from 2021 was also directed at Harris, among other Democrats like Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In the interview, Harris said it is a “blessing” that she has a very close and respectful relationship with her step-children’s mother.
“We have to be intentional about it,” she said. “The most important thing is that our kids grow up healthy.”
She said it is often forgotten that parents act as role models every day in teaching their children “how to develop healthy, emotional relationship.”
Harris said she was intentional to ensure that her stepchildren would not feel like they were being disloyal to their biological mother. She would ask how them how their mother, Kerstin Emhoff, made certain dishes or did other types of chores.
Kerstin has been vocal about Harris’ campaign, support and defending her over the past few months. She was seen at the Democratic National Convention with Cole and Ella, who made appearances on stage along with Harris’ niece, Meena, and goddaughter, Helena Hudlin.
Helena Hudlin, from left, Meena Harris and Ella Emhoff speak during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago.
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
“Blended families are the new norm,” said Barnes, who is a step-father himself.
Harris agreed and said it’s a “beautiful way to live, to build and grow your family.”
“I think increasingly, especially young people, understand that there’s the family you’re born to and the family you choose,” she said. “It’s on you to make a decision about what you want and how you define your family, and you have the right to that.”
The vice president’s appearance on “All The Smoke” comes as part of a media strategy that eschews many mainstream outlets in favor of speaking to niche content creators with large audiences, such as Barnes and Jackson.
It is a strategy that is also being executed by her opponent, Donald Trump, who has held his most in-depth interviews of the election cycle on popular podcasts and internet shows rather than traditional news outlets. Trump, however, still speaks to the mainstream press with some regularity, while Harris has largely shied away from taking questions from the credentialed press in a formal or informal setting.
