Following a Daily Mail report that second gentleman Doug Emhoff cheated on his first wife with his children’s nanny, Emhoff acknowledged the affair in a statement to CNN. The story comes as Vice President Kamala Harris, Emhoff’s current wife, has emerged as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through difficult times because of my actions,” Harris’ husband told CNN. “I took responsibility and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and came out stronger.”
The statement came after The Daily Mail reported that Emhoff had an affair with Najen Naylor (now 47) in 2006, when she was his children’s nanny and also his children’s teacher at his “expensive private school,” The Willows, where tuition fees range from $32,525 to $41,535.
Emhoff was married at the time to his ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff, and the couple had two children, who are now adults, according to the publication.
According to The Daily Mail, that romance ended with a pregnancy, but Naylor allegedly “did not keep the child.” She has not responded to The Daily Signal’s requests for comment.
The publication did not clarify whether the baby in question was given up for adoption or aborted. The Daily Mail reports that Naylor’s social media accounts “show a video of a mysterious little girl named Brook from 2009, the year the baby was reportedly born.”
The Daily Mail reached out to Naylor at her home in the Hamptons and asked for comment on the story, but she had no comment beyond saying: “I’m a bit scared right now.”
Kerstin Emhoff, the second gentleman’s first wife, told CNN: “Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons many years ago. He is a great father to our children, remains a great friend to me and I am so proud of the warm and supportive family that Doug, Kamala and I have built together.”
He also recently defended Harris as “loving, protective, fiercely protective and always there,” in response to criticism from Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, describing Harris as “co-parenting with Doug and I.”
In a recent social media post, Kerstin Emhoff predicted that Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, would divorce before next year, writing in an X-rated post in July: “Usha will be in the ex-wives club in 2025. Mark my words.”
Harris’ campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Signal. CNN reported that the vetting committees for both Harris and President Joe Biden have known about the Emhoff affair for the past four years, apparently since Harris was vetted for the running mate selection process.
A person familiar with the Biden investigative committee conversations reportedly told CNN that Emhoff told Harris about the affair before they were married and that Emhoff’s relationship with Naylor ended years before he began dating Harris.
Harris and Emhoff married in 2014, according to CNN. He ended his marriage to his first wife in 2009.
News of the affair and the Daily Mail’s report that Naylor did not keep the baby sparked widespread criticism from X-wing conservatives.
Some, such as The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway, criticized Emhoff for his past pro-abortion rhetoric in light of the allegations.
“I remember when @KamalaHarris called me to tell me about the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs,” Emhoff said in an Oct. 7, 2022, X post. “The first thing I thought of was my daughter. As a father and husband, I’m going to do everything I can to speak out and help advance reproductive freedom.”
“So your first thought was that if a man used your daughter like you used your nanny, you would want to do everything you could to ensure that man could also avoid accountability for what he had done?” Hemingway tweeted. “FATHER OF THE YEAR, Doug.”
So your first thought was that if a man used your daughter like you used your nanny, you would want to do everything you could to ensure that that man could also avoid accountability for what he had done? FATHER OF THE YEAR, there you have it, Doug.
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) August 5, 2024
Others, such as Cabot Phillips of The Daily Wire, pointed to the approach of traditional media outlets such as The New York Times, which described the incident as a “long-standing affair” and a “previously undisclosed relationship.”
Note the New York Times framing here: Doug Emhoff impregnates his son’s teacher in 2009, and the incident is dismissed as “a long-standing affair.”
Yet they breathlessly report on Trump’s alleged 2006 affair as if it happened yesterday. image.twitter.com/RnTQh4xFck
— Cabot Phillips (@cabot_phillips) August 4, 2024
