Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff’s unusual romance had a rather low-key start. The duo first met on a blind date in 2013, which is quite remarkable. This was 5 years after Emhoff’s divorce from Kerstin Mackin, the movie producer.
However, it was quite clear from the beginning that the pair were just perfect with each other. Doug Emhoff even recalled their first date during his Democratic National Convention speech in 2024.
If their meet-cute was not unconventional enough, Emhoff managed to get Kamala Harris’ phone number from a client who helped him set up with Harris. She was then serving as the attorney general of California.
“I got Kamala’s voicemail, and I just started rambling. I remember trying to grab the words from the air and just put them back in my mouth, and after what seemed like far too many minutes, I hung up,” Emhoff jokingly reflected during his DNC speech (via USA Today). “Kamala saved that voicemail … and she makes me listen to it on every anniversary.”
Doug Emhoff wasn’t gonna exit the stage without rousing the crowd to cheer on his wife, Kamala Harris, once more. She ate it up, too. 🤣🥰 pic.twitter.com/exInSxmi50
— flywithkamala.bsky.social (@flywithkamala) October 30, 2024
Kamala Harris even recalls the initial voicemail in the 2019 memoir “The Truths We Hold.” Harris wrote that even though Emhoff’s message was a bit “long and a little rambling,” she could feel that Doug was a good person. She even thought that she wanted to know him better. But, this was not the outcome Emhoff was expecting from Kamala.
“[He] was pretty sure that he had ruined his chances,” Harris wrote. “The way he tells it, he thought his voicemail had been disastrous and that he’d likely never hear from me again.” Harris, however, had different plans.
Doug Emhoff’s snafu did not bother Harris because she saw something in him. As Kamala Harris commented on “CBS Sunday Morning” in 2021, she actually found his message very endearing. “It was adorable,” Harris said with a smile. “I mean, the thing about Doug is that he is exactly who he is. He’s just fully authentic and clear about the things he cares about. And it’s family, it’s his work … and me.”
Kamala Harris even admitted that the friend who set them up with each other said not to Google Doug, but she did that anyway. However, she liked whatever she found. Eventually, Harris called Doug back, and their chemistry kicked off instantly. Harris wrote in her memoir “The Truths We Hold” that their conversation seemed easy and smooth, which led to a nice dinner date. Harris and Emhoff got along really well, and they wanted to take their relationship seriously.
So about that time @KamalaHarris googled me before our first date. pic.twitter.com/3qzUpjWgyl
— Doug Emhoff (@DouglasEmhoff) August 15, 2024
“The morning after our first date, Doug emailed me with a list of his available dates for the next couple of months,” Harris recalled in her memoir, adding that Emhoff wrote in the email, “‘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.'” Their relationship took off from there, and Harris soon met Emhoff’s kids, Cole and Ella. Since then, they have been a contented and happy family.
