Kamala Harris' stepdaughter speaks at DNC: 'No matter what, Kamala was there for me'
Kamala Harris' family was out in full force at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week.
Not only did the vice president's husband, Doug Emhoff, give a speech on the second day of the convention, her stepchildren, Cole and Ella, also had speaking roles.
On the final night of the convention, Ella appeared with Harris' niece Meena Harris and goddaughter Helena Hudlin.
Ella said Harris had come into her life when she was 14 — "a famously easy time" for kids growing up, she joked.
“Like a lot of young people, I didn’t always understand what I was feeling, but no matter what, Kamala was there for me,” Ella said. “She was patient, caring and always took me seriously.”
Cole also played a part at the DNC, narrating a pre-recorded message on the second day of the convention that made his father teary-eyed ahead of his appearance.
“My parents split when I was in middle school, and that wasn’t easy. That’s not easy for any kid, but it helped that my parents stayed friends, and we all kept hanging together. We grew closer than ever,” Cole said in the video. “And then he met Kamala, the blind date that would dramatically change all of our lives forever.”
“We might not look like other families in the White House, but we are ready to represent all families in America,” he concluded as he introduced his father and hugged him onstage.
Ella was seen in the audience also wiping away tears.
The 59-year-old vice president married Emhoff in 2014 and became stepmother to his two children. Cole was 19 and Ella was 15 when Harris and Emhoff married.
Before the second gentleman spoke on Aug. 20, his kids joked about seeing his “goofy face” on television in a video posted on his Instagram. They also called him “the best dad in the whole world.”
In 2019, Harris wrote an essay for Elle in which she detailed her love for Cole and Ella, describing them as her “endless source of love and pure joy.”
In a 2021 interview, JD Vance, now the Republican nominee for vice-president on Donald Trump’s ticket, said: “We are effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” He named Harris as an example.
Both Emhoff's ex-wife Kersten and Harris' stepchildren rejected that categorization.
“For over 10 years, since Cole and Ella were teenagers, Kamala has been a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective, and always present," Kerstin Emhoff told CNN.
Ella quipped on Instagram, “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie pie kids like Cole and I?”
Does Kamala Harris have kids?
Doug Emhoff was married to Kerstin Emhoff, a film producer and founder of the production company Prettybird, for 16 years before they divorced in 2008. During their marriage, the couple welcomed their two children, Cole and Ella.
When Harris and Doug Emhoff married, she gained two stepchildren.
“When Doug and I got married, Cole, Ella, and I agreed that we didn’t like the term ‘stepmom,’” she wrote in the Elle essay. “Instead, they came up with the name ‘Momala.’”
“I am so thankful to Doug, to Kerstin (Doug’s ex-wife), and most of all, to Ella and Cole,” she wrote at the end of the essay. “I can say one thing with certainty, my heart wouldn’t be whole, nor my life full, without them.”
Kerstin Emhoff has been vocal about her support for Harris over the years. More recently, at the end of July, Kerstin Emhoff posted Time magazine's cover of her ex-husband's wife replacing Biden.
"Kamala Harris for President!" she wrote in the caption.
Kerstin Emhoff was also seen sitting with Ella at the convention on Aug. 20.
Was Kamala Harris ever married before?
Harris' marriage to Doug Emhoff is her first marriage.
In her 2019 book, “The Truths We Hold,” Harris said she and Emhoff waited for her to meet the children until about two months after their first date, but when they did meet, the kids “could not have been more welcoming.”
“I was already hooked on Doug, but I believe it was Cole and Ella who reeled me in.” she said in the Elle essay. “They are brilliant, talented, funny kids who have grown to be remarkable adults.”
Who are Kamala Harris' children, Cole and Ella?
During a 2021 recorded video appearance for the Democratic National Convention, Ella described the VP as “Momala, the world’s greatest stepmom.”
Cole Emhoff, 30
Cole Emhoff was born in 1994. According to IMDB, he works in entertainment like his mother.
In her Elle essay, Harris revealed that Cole was named after celebrated American jazz saxophonist John Coltrane.
Harris described in her piece how the family spends time together around the table for Sunday dinners and that it's her stepson who "sets the table and picks the music."
His IMDB profile shows that he worked as an assistant on the 2020 hit film “Minari” and in the 2022 remake of “Father of the Bride,” also as an assistant.
Cole was present for the 59th presidential inauguration in January 2021, during which Harris was sworn in as vice president.
In October 2023, Harris officiated Cole's wedding to Greenley Littlejohn.
In a statement to People at the time, Harris that being asked to officiate “meant so much for so many reasons.”
“For us, we think of marriage as being not just between these two people, but the coming together of families. So it was very much with that spirit that we all participated,” she said.
“I love my husband. I love our marriage. I want for those two (Cole and Greenley) to have a loving marriage where they are best friends and they know that it’s not just them against the world, that our family supports them. That the community of people that came together at the wedding supports (them).”
Ella Emhoff, 25
Ella is a model and fashion designer who graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City in May 2021.
On July 23, 2024, Ella shared a story on X that was a retweet of singer Charli xcx who commented about Harris with the words: “Kamala IS brat.”
Ella’s comment on the story: “@charli_xcx gets it”.
In her 2019 essay for Elle, Harris revealed that Ella was named after famous American jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald.
In 2021, Ella gained attention for the Miu Miu coat she wore to President Biden’s swearing-in ceremony.
According to The New York Times, one week later, she was signed to the prestigious modeling agency IMG Models.
Harris wrote in Elle that her stepdaughter was on her school’s swim and basketball teams and enjoyed making dessert for the family’s Sunday dinners.
According to her essay, when Harris was sworn into the United States Senate, Ella entered her senior year of high school in Los Angeles, California.
"This new job meant that I would be splitting time between California and Washington, D.C., and the hardest part was going to be being away from my Ella," she wrote at the time.
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
