She’s one of the most important political figures on the planet, but that doesn’t mean Kamala Harris hasn’t navigated a few first date nerves in her time.
And she’s previously ignored a pal’s words of wisdom during the early days of her courtship with hubby Doug Emhoff. Fortunately, it all worked out for the best, with the couple falling for each other quickly after their initially ‘awkward’ meet-cute.
In her 2019 memoir The Truths We Hold, Kamala opened up about the ordinary way she and Doug first locked eyes – through a good old-fashioned blind date. And like many singletons before and after her, the politician, then ‘just’ the attorney general of California, couldn’t resist carrying out a bit of all-important background research beforehand.
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Kamala revealed how, back in 2013, a friend of hers had told her she was setting her up with a ‘cute’ man who lived in LA – but gave her one strict instruction. Recalling her pal’s word of warning, Kamala shared: “‘His name is Doug Emhoff, but promise me you won’t Google him. Don’t overthink it. Just meet him. I already gave him your number. He’s going to reach out’.”
However, as Kamala later admitted in a 2021 interview, she couldn’t help but unleash her inner detective when getting the measure of her potential new beau. In news that surprised Doug during a couple’s interview with CBS News, Kamala said: “My best friend set us up on a blind date. And she said, ‘Just trust me. Just trust me. Just don’t … You know, she wanted me to just kind of go into it, and she said, ‘Don’t Google him’. I did!”
While Kamala was learning that Doug was a lawyer focused on the entertainment industry, her nervous husband-to-be was busily composing his all-important first message to her, with a little help from one his ‘buddies’. Doug confessed: “One of my buddies was in town, and we went to a Laker game. And so, you know, we [had] a couple of beers, I told him the story. I said, ‘What do you think I should text her?’ So, we sat there in the stands and we came up with this text, which was something like, ‘Hey, it’s Doug. Awkward! I’m texting you’.”
The following morning, he left an equally awkward message on her answerphone – which Kamala reportedly still teasingly plays back to him on their anniversary each year. Fortunately, she found it charming. In her book, which sheds light on Kamala’s life away from the White House, Kamala wrote: “The voicemail, which I still have saved to this day, was long and a little rambling. He sounded like a nice guy, though, and I was intrigued to learn more.
“Doug, on the other hand, was pretty sure that he had ruined his chances. The way he tells it, he thought his voicemail had been disastrous and that he’d likely never hear from me again. He had to restrain himself from calling again and leaving another long-winded message trying to explain away the first one.”
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Later that same day, the pair spoke over the phone, and found that ‘conversation just flowed’. Kamala remembered: “There was no pretense or posing with Doug, no arrogance or boasting. He seemed so genuinely comfortable with himself. It’s part of why I liked him immediately.”
A romantic dinner at an LA was locked in for that Saturday night, and it soon became clear there was a mutual attraction. Opening up during an interview with CNN in 2021, smitten Doug confided: “It felt like we had known each other forever. I didn’t want it to end. And so the next morning, I pulled the move of emailing her with my availabilities for the next four months, including long weekends. And I said something like, ‘I’m too old to hide the ball. You’re great. I want to see if we can make this work. Here’s when I’m available next’. And I guess it worked.”
Doug popped the question the following year, and a wedding at the Santa Barbara, California, courthouse soon followed. From then on, their lives have proven to be somewhat of a rollercoaster, with Kamala continuing to rise to the very top of US politics. And supportive Doug has been cheering her on every step of the way.
It’s certainly been a momentous year for the couple, who have long expressed their admiration for one another. Back in August, Kamala and Doug celebrated their 10-year wedding anniversary, on the exact same day the VP made history as the first Black woman to accept the presidential nomination on behalf of a major party.
They both also celebrated their milestone 60th birthdays in October, with devoted wife Kamala taking to Instagram with a sweet post to mark her husband’s special day. She captioned the post: “Happy birthday, Dougie. Thank you for being such an incredible partner to me. I love you so much.”
Doug in turn has made no secret of the high esteem in which he holds his successful wife, describing himself as the ‘proud husband to Kamala Harris’ in his Instagram profile.
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