Originally appeared on E! Online
Ella Emhoff is doing just fine, thank you very much.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter slammed reports she is unwell after appearing emotional amid the 2024 presidential election results.
“Ok I’m just gonna go out and say it,” she wrote on Instagram Story Nov. 9. “There’s a rumor about me having a mental breakdown and getting checked into a hospital. Not true. Also f–k you if you’re out there spreading that.”
“There’s nothing wrong with showing emotion and crying,” she continued. “Anyone who says there is probably needs a good cry.”
Rather, she’s proud to feel all her feels. “I’ve struggled with my mental health my whole life and I’m not ashamed of it,” she concluded her caption over a shot of her and her dog. “I’ve literally just been here playing fetch with Jerry.”
Mom Kerstin Emhoff—who was married to Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff from 1992 to 2008—also spoke out to defend her daughter.
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“Leave my kids alone!!!!” Kerstin, also mom to Cole Emhoff, tweeted. “Ella is doing great and spending a lovely day with her mom! Having the ability to show your emotions is something we should all hope for. It’s ok to not feel great right now. We aren’t letting anyone break out family down.”
Indeed, following the election, in which her stepmom was defeated by Donald Trump, the 25-year-old shared a message of hope.
“We are all gonna get through this,” she wrote alongside a photo of herself watching Harris’ concession speech. “It just f–king hurts like a b—h right now and that’s ok.”
“The fight doesn’t stop now,” she continued. “Just please check in on your people right now. This is the time to organize, mobilize and make a difference in your communities big or small.”
Harris shared a similar sentiment while addressing the nation Nov. 6 at her alma mater, Howard University.
“My heart is full today, full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country, and full of resolve,” she said. “The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for, but hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always burn bright as long as we never give up and as long as we keep fighting.”
“And to the young people who are watching,” she continued, “it is OK to feel sad and disappointed, but please know it’s going to be OK.”
“Here’s the thing: Sometimes the fight takes a while,” Harris said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t win. The important thing is don’t ever give up, don’t ever stop trying to make the world a better place.”
To get to know Harris’ blended family, keep reading…
Mom Shyamala Gopalan & Dad Donald J. Harris
Shyamala Gopalan was born in southern India in 1938 and Donald J. Harris was born in Jamaica that same year.
According to The New York Times, they met in 1962 while earning their Ph.Ds at the University of California, Berkeley and as members of the study group the Afro American Association. They wed the following year and welcomed daughters Kamala Harris in 1964 and Maya Harris in 1967.
“They fell in love in that most American way,” Harris said in her 2020 Democratic National Convention speech, “while marching together for justice in the civil rights movement of the 1960s.”
However, her parents later split.
“I knew they loved each other very much, but it seemed they’d become like oil and water,” Harris wrote in her book The Truths We Hold. “By the time I was five years old, the bond between them had given way under the weight of incompatibility.”
While Harris wrote her father “remained a part of our lives” after the divorce, she noted “it was really my mother who took charge of our upbringing.”
After working as a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Donald joined Stanford and is a professor of economics, emeritus, per his school bio.
Shyamala, who died in 2009 at age 70, was a breast cancer researcher. Breast Cancer Action noted her “work in isolating and characterizing the progesterone receptor gene transformed the medical establishment’s understanding of the hormone-responsiveness of breast tissue.”
Husband Doug Emhoff
Born in Brooklyn in 1964 and raised in Matawan, New Jersey, Doug Emhoff moved to Los Angeles with his family as a teen. He received his B.A. in communications from California State University, Northridge in 1987 and graduated with a J.D. from University of Southern California Gould School of Law three years later.
As Emhoff previously told CBS Sunday Morning, he met Harris in 2013 after they were set up on a blind date by a mutual friend. The entertainment litigator had texted the former California Attorney General at a Lakers game after some encouragement from his pal.
“We sat there in the stands and came up with this text that’s like, ‘Hey, it’s Doug. Awkward. I’m texting you,'” he recalled to the outlet. “She said something like, ‘Yay Lakers! Go Lakers!’ Biggest Warriors fan out there.”
While Emhoff feared he’d never hear from Harris again after he left a self-described “ridiculous” voicemail, she told CBS she thought the message was “just adorable” (though, she admitted she Googled him before their date).
They exchanged vows in a Santa Barbara, Calif. courthouse three years before Harris was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2017.
In addition to being the nation’s first-ever second gentleman, Emhoff is the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice president. He also taught law courses at Georgetown University and is dad to kids Cole and Ella Emhoff, whom he shares with ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff.
Stepson Cole Emhoff
Cole Emhoff, born in 1994, will never forget when he was first introduced to Harris.
“I met her and we had this amazing dinner,” Emhoff’s eldest, who was a senior in high school at the time of their meeting, recalled to Glamour in 2020. “And I realized like, Oh, my God, Doug has met someone who is completely unique and totally special. I think for all of us, it was love at first sight.”
Cole graduated from Colorado College in 2017. According to People, citing his now-private LinkedIn profile, he has worked for Brad Pitt’s production company Plan B and is married to Greenley Littlejohn, with Harris officiating their wedding in 2023.
Stepdaughter Ella Emhoff
Ella Emhoff, born in 1999 and named after Ella Fitzgerald, has similar memories of her first meeting with Harris.
“It felt like we had known each other forever,” the artist, who was just entering high school at the time, added to Glamour. “And I think what was important was getting to know her as a person first—a person before a politician.”
Years after that introduction, Ella introduced Harris at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, where she accepted the vice-presidential nomination.
According to her LinkedIn profile, Ella—who previously confirmed a relationship with GQ editor Samuel Hine—graduated from New York’s Parson’s School of Design in 2021 with a degree in Fine and Studio Arts. She interned at A.L.C. and worked as a fabricator at The Haas Brothers.
In addition to being a multidisciplinary artist—founding her company Soft Hands—she’s a model with IMG Models who has appeared in both Paris and New York Fashion Week.
Sister Maya Harris
Among those closest to Harris is her younger sister, Maya Harris.
“We leaned on each other,” the 49th Vice President told The Washington Post in 2019. “We forged a bond that is unbreakable. When I think about it, all of the joyous moments in our lives, all of the challenging moments, all of the moments of transition, we have always been together.”
As her bio notes, Maya served as a campaign chairperson during Harris’ 2020 presidential run and later championed her run for VP alongside President Joe Biden. Previously, she worked as a senior policy advisor to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign.
Born in 1967, Maya graduated from University of California, Berkeley and then received her law degree from Stanford Law School. Her résumé includes leadership positions at the Ford Foundation and ACLU of Northern California, a senior fellow role at the Center for American Progress, a visiting scholar apppointment at Harvard Law School and author contribution to The Covenant with Black America.
Maya is married to Tony West, former Associate Attorney General and current Chief Legal Officer at Uber, and is mom to daughter Meena Harris.
Niece Meena Harris
Born in 1984, Meena Harris is Harris’ niece.
She attended Stanford University for undergrad and then studied at Harvard Law School. In addition to working as an attorney, she’s held positions at Facebook, Slack and Uber.
Later, Meena founded Phenomenal, a consumer and media company that’s produced musicals like Suffs, & Juliet and A Strange Loop and acquired satirical women’s magazine Reductress. She is also a best-selling children’s book author of titles including Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea, Ambitious Girl and The Truth About Mrs. Claus.
In addition, Meena is mom to daughters Amara and Leela, whom she shares with Nik Ajagu.
