Kamala Harris' life outside of politics: Her husband Doug and two stepchildren

Vice-President Kamala Harris is in the final hours of her campaign to be the next president of the United States of America before voters go to the polls on Tuesday.

The 60-year-old is the daughter of two immigrant parents, an Indian-born mother and Jamaican-born father. Her parents divorced when she was five and she was raised primarily by her Hindu single mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, a cancer researcher and civil rights activist. Her weekends were spent with her father, Donald J. Harris, a professor at Stanford University.

In the 1990s, Harris graduated with a law degree from Harvard, and began working as a junior prosecutor for Alaemeda County, California - which includes the cities of Berkeley and her hometown of Oakland.

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It was there that Harris began dating Willie Brown, a prominent political leader who was 30 years her senior. As the BBC reports, Brown appointed her to two state boards and introduced her to some of San Francisco’s highest-profile Democratic donors. The short-lived romance ended by the time Brown was elected as the city’s mayor in 1995. Three years later, Harris took a job at the San Francisco district attorney’s office.

In 2013 Harris met her husband, entertainment lawyer, Doug Emhoff on a blind date that was set up by a mutual friend. The pair married in Santa Barbara in August 2014, making Harris the stepmother to Doug’s two children, Cole and Ella Emhoff, from a previous marriage to film producer Kerstin Emhoff.

Harris has said that of all her many titles, being "Momala" - the term coined by Cole and Ella - is the most important. Cole and Ella, now 30 and 25, respectively, have been vocal supporters of Harris. Doug’s ex-wife Kerstin has also been a public supporter of Kamala.

"The world’s greatest step-mother" was Ella’s introduction during the 2020 Democratic convention. "You’re a rock, not just for our dad, but for three generations of our big, blended family."

A couple of months ago, the Daily Mail reported that Doug and Kerstin’s marriage ended because Doug had an affair with one of his daughter’s then-teachers. In response, Kerstin released a statement in support of her ex-husband.

Kerstin Emhoff said in a statement, “Doug and I decided to end our marriage for a variety of reasons, many years ago. 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.”