His eyes are trained on a January move to the White House, but right now potential First Gentleman Doug Emhoff is in the doghouse.
On Saturday DailyMail.com broke the news that Emhoff’s first marriage ended when he got his children’s nanny pregnant.
Now, we can reveal, life at Number One Observatory Circle – the vice president’s official residence – has been frosty to say the least.
‘You know what they say, ‘once a cheater always a cheater’,’ remarked one high-placed source.
‘Of course, Kamala is worrying, not just that he might do it again, but could he have already done it again?’
Our bombshell exclusive revealed that Emhoff, 59, had an affair with blonde Najen Naylor, a teacher at his children’s school who also moonlighted as a nanny for then-eight-year-old daughter Ella. The affair cost him his first marriage and he and first wife Kerstin, now CEO of ‘creative think tank’ Prettybird, divorced in 2008.
The news broke just after Emhoff’s name – and face – had been thrust in the limelight on Friday, when his wife’s campaign unveiled new coffee mugs emblazoned with an image of a handsome – noticeably younger, thinner and fuller-haired Second Gentleman, for sale on kamalaharris.com.
Within hours, the Harris campaign was on the defensive with Emhoff admitting the affair, and claiming he had told Kamala years ago and had also revealed the affair to Joe Biden’s camp when it was vetting candidates for the vice-presidential candidate in 2020.
‘During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions, Emhoff admitted sheepishly after DailyMail.com’s exclusive.
‘I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side.’
But even though Kamala, 59, is said to have known, it has still left her ‘unnerved and humiliated’ just two weeks after it became clear she would be the Democrat’s 2024 presidential pick, according to one insider.
‘She’s trying to focus on rebranding her image and this is the last thing she wanted right now.’
‘The Democrats’ convention is just around the corner and the election is less than three months away, so any distraction has to be bad news.’
Put bluntly it’s not a good look and Harris and her team know it. News of the affair has dominated coverage of the candidate over the weekend and sparked panic in her camp.’
Even a statement from his first wife supporting him didn’t help much.
‘Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons, many years ago,’ Kerstin, 57, said.
‘He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend to me and I am really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala, and I have built together.’
Admirable as her defense of the father of her two children was, there’s no getting away from the fact that key among that ‘variety of reasons’ was Emhoff’s affair.
Harris tried to put the affair behind her with Tuesday’s choice of outsider Tim Walz, as her running mate, hoping the spotlight would shift to the Minnesota Governor’s rock-steady 30-year marriage.
Naylor, now 47, moved from California to the east coast shortly after the affair ended.
She now lives in the millionaire’s playground of the Hamptons, New York.
She did not attempt to deny the affair when approached by DailyMail.com at her home.
Her only comment was that she was ‘kind of freaked out right now’.
But a close friend with direct knowledge of the affair and pregnancy told DailyMail.com that Naylor did not keep the child, while CBS has since reported that the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.
Another friend, Stacey Brooks, who mothered twin boys around the same time as Naylor was expecting, also did not deny any of the claims – but said she would not divulge further information without Naylor’s permission.
Emhoff and movie producer ex-wife Kerstin, 57, ended their 16-year marriage in 2009 when she discovered the affair, the sources said. Their daughter Ella was 10 and son Cole was 15 at the time.
Sources told DailyMail.com that after the affair Naylor had to leave her job at the children’s swank private school, The Willows in Culver City, California, where she worked first as a teacher’s aide and then as a teacher.
Current tuition fees at the kindergarten-through-8th-grade school range from $32,525 to $41,535.
The Emhoff’s 2010 divorce settlement filed in a Los Angeles court says the couple shared costs of a nanny, private tutor and private school fees.
When the couple split in May 2009, daughter Ella, now a model, was finishing third grade.
Emhoff met Harris, then California’s Attorney General, three years later in 2013 when he was set up on a blind date by one of her friends. They married the following year.
It is not clear whether he confessed his affair to Harris before his second wife was undergoing vetting to become Vice President or if that was the moment it came to light.
Whatever the case, sources say, it couldn’t have resurfaced at a worst time just as Harris has overtaken Donald Trump in several polls and is ramping up for her final push to win over voters in November.
