Second gentleman Doug Emhoff denied the veracity of a Daily Mail report in which three unnamed sources accused him of having slapped a former girlfriend during a 2012 trip to the Cannes Film Festival.
Fox News Digital has not been able to independently confirm the allegations.
“This report is untrue,” an unnamed representative for Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband told news outlet Semafor. “Any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.”
The Daily Mail’s exclusive story on Tuesday quoted a trio of unidentified sources who claim Emhoff slapped his then-girlfriend while the couple waited in a valet line following an event in Nice, France, in 2012. The alleged altercation was purportedly sparked when the woman – identified only by the pseudonym “Jane” and described as a successful New York attorney – flirted with a valet, according to the article.
The Harris campaign, the Office of the Vice President and a representative for Emhoff’s ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, did not comment despite repeated requests from Fox News.
Several media outlets, including Semafor, noted they had been unable to match the Daily Mail’s reporting and legacy media companies such as the New York Times have yet to report on the claims.
The Daily Mail’s article hinged on the recollections of three people described as being Jane’s friends. The outlet said its sources requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation from Emhoff. The three friends reportedly provided the outlet with a photo of the pair when they were still a couple, as well as itineraries and correspondence between Emhoff and Jane to substantiate that they made the trip to France in May 2012.
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Second gentleman Doug Emhoff participates in stage testing ahead of the start of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024 in Chicago. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
One of the sources is described by the Daily Mail as a female New York attorney who learned about the alleged incident from Jane.
“He hauled up and slapped her so hard she spun around,” the source is quoted as saying. “She said she was in utter shock. She was so furious, she slapped him on one side, and then on the other cheek with the other hand.”
Another friend, described by the Daily Mail as a New York businessman, told the outlet Jane called him sobbing following the alleged incident.
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“It was very clear what she was telling me,” that source said, according to the Daily Mail. “She said she was with a guy, her date, she was at the Cannes Film Festival, and he hit her. She was in the car with the guy at the time.”
The male friend said he learned more details about the alleged episode after the initial phone call.
Vice President Kamala Harris hugs second gentleman Douglas Emhoff after speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 22, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
“It was something like 3 a.m. They were trying to get out of there and they both had been drinking. There was a gigantic line for taxis,” he told the outlet. “She went up to one of the valet guys, offered him 100 euros or whatever, to get to the head of the line. She told me she put her hand on his shoulder. Doug apparently thought that she was flirting, and came over and slapped her in the face.”
A third friend, described as a female executive, told the Daily Mail that she learned of the alleged incident in 2014, and purportedly found out new details from Jane in 2018, when Harris, then a senator from California, made headlines with her questioning of a Supreme Court nominee who had been accused of sexual assault.
“[She] is a gorgeous, strong woman and you would never expect somebody to hit her,” the third friend told the Daily Mail. “When he hit her she hit him back, like, ‘Don’t you ever do that again,'”
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The third Daily Mail source added: “I asked her if he ever apologized. She said ‘no,’ but he commented about the hit she gave him. It was a tennis metaphor. But no apology at all.”
All three friends told the outlet that Jane hit Emhoff back after the alleged initial slap. They also claimed that Jane tried to leave the valet area after the alleged slap, but that Emhoff got into a cab with Jane.
Jane and Emhoff had been dating for about three months before the reported trip to France, according to the friends. Emhoff allegedly cut the trip short and returned to the U.S. for his daughter’s birthday at the end of May, and never saw Jane again, the friends told the outlet.
Doug Emhoff points as he speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Aug. 20, 2024. (Reuters/Mike Segar)
Emhoff’s alleged relationship with Jane unfolded after his 2008 divorce from his first wife and before his 2014 marriage to Harris.
The New York Post on Wednesday slammed Emhoff as “Worst Gentleman” in its cover story detailing the Daily Mail’s article.
Sen. Kamala Harris, then her party’s vice presidential nominee, and her husband Douglas Emhoff appear on stage at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Emhoff is fresh off of a Sunday sit-down interview on MSNBC during which Jen Psaki celebrated him as having reshaped “the perception of masculinity.”
“There is also an important, interesting part about how people have talked about your role is how your role has reshaped the perception of masculinity,” Psaki said. “I’m not sure you planned on that, but you are an incredibly supportive spouse. Has that been an evolution for you? Do you think that’s part of the role you might play as first gentleman?”
Emhoff responded: “It’s funny. I’ve started to think a lot about this. I’ve always been like this. My dad’s always been like this. To me, it’s the right thing to do, support women. It is mutual with Kamala and I. We support each other, we have each other’s back.”
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He added: “I’ve said many times when we lift up women, we support women, whether it’s pay equity, child care, family leave, and all of these issues in this post-Dobbs hellscape. Women should not be less than. Women should not have less rights and be treated differently. That’s not the American way.”
Clips of the exchange spread like wildfire on social media as critics noted that, in August, Emhoff admitted to having an affair with his family’s nanny during his first marriage years ago.
Emhoff’s admission came shortly after the Daily Mail published a separate report in August claiming that he got his daughter’s nanny pregnant.
The affair occurred before Emhoff’s relationship with and eventual marriage to Harris.
“During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility, and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side,” Emhoff said over the summer, acknowledging the affair, but not naming the nanny.
Kerstin Emhoff addressed her ex-husband Doug Emhoff’s affair with a nanny. (Tommaso Boddi/Getty Images)
Emhoff and his first wife were married from 1992 to 2008 and share two adult children. Harris married Emhoff in 2014, and helped co-parent his children, who call their stepmom “mommala.”
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Emhoff reportedly told Jane in 2012 about his divorce, according to her female friend who works as an executive.
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The Daily Mail’s report was published just five weeks before the election, when Harris will square off against former President Trump at the ballot box.
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