Everything We Know About Kamala Harris' First Date With Doug Emhoff

Doug Emhoff and Kamala Harris' romance had a rather low-key beginning. The pair first met on a blind date in 2013, five years after Emhoff's divorce from movie producer Kerstin Mackin. However, it was seemingly clear from the start that the pair were a perfect match. Emhoff even recalled their fortuitous first date during his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2024.

He apparently first got Harris' phone number from a client who offered to set him up with Harris — who 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."

Harris also recalled that initial voicemail in her 2019 memoir "The Truths We Hold." Harris wrote that, despite the message being "long and a little rambling," she could tell that Emhoff was a nice person, and she wanted to get to know him better. This was an outcome Emhoff was apparently not expecting. "[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.

Despite Doug Emhoff's snafu, Kamala Harris saw something in him. As Harris told "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2021, she actually found the message endearing. "It was adorable," Harris shared 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."

Harris also admitted that the friend who set them up told her not to Google him — but she did anyway, and liked what she found. Eventually, she called Emhoff back and the chemistry was immediately apparent. Harris wrote in her book "The Truths We Hold" that their conversation came smoothly and easily, and that they soon got together for a nice dinner date that went so well Emhoff immediately wanted to do it again and make it something serious.

"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.'" Things then took off from there, with Harris meeting Emhoff's two children — Cole and Ella — soon after, and they've been going strong as a family unit ever since.