Kamala Harris: Meet the family behind her success

Kamala Harris met her husband, Doug Emhoff, a Los Angeles entertainment lawyer, in 2013 while she was serving as California’s attorney general. They married the following year. Since then, Emhoff, 59, has remained by his wife's side as she ascended in US politics.

The vice president’s marriage made her a stepmother to Cole and Ella, the two children Emhoff shares with his first wife, Kerstin Emhoff. Kamala Harris often emphasizes that out of all her titles, being "Momala"—a term coined by Cole and Ella—is the most meaningful. The affection is mutual, as Cole and Ella, now 30 and 25, respectively, have been vocal supporters of Harris.

Cole, who graduated from Colorado College in 2017, has followed his father into the entertainment industry, working at talent agency WME and later at Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B.

Ella, who graduated from Parsons School of Design in New York City, signed with IMG Models in 2021 and has walked in shows for high-fashion brands like Balenciaga and Proenza Schouler. She is also an artist and a prolific knitter, having launched the knitwear brand and club, Soft Hands, in 2021.

Cole and Ella’s mother, Kerstin, has—perhaps unexpectedly—gone out of her way to speak warmly and positively about Kamala Harris. Recently, Kerstin defended Harris when JD Vance’s "childless cat lady" comments resurfaced. The founder and CEO of production company Prettybird, Kerstin even contributed her creative expertise and connections to the 2020 campaign.

Kamala Harris is known to be very close to her only sibling and younger sister, Maya Harris. After their parents' divorce, the two sisters were primarily raised by their mother, Shyamala Gopalan, in Berkeley, California. Like her older sister, Maya pursued a career in law, graduating from Stanford University Law School in 1992. She worked as a litigator and taught law classes before joining the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, where she became executive director in 2006. Maya, 57, eventually transitioned to politics, serving as a senior policy advisor to Hillary Clinton during her 2016 presidential campaign. She later became the campaign chair for her sister’s 2020 bid for the Democratic nomination, and then a surrogate for the Biden-Harris ticket.

Maya’s only child, Meena, continued the Harris family tradition by graduating from law school. Meena advised her "Aunty" Kamala during the early stages of her political career while also moving through positions at elite Silicon Valley companies like Uber, Facebook, and Slack.

Husband to Maya and stepfather to Meena, Tony West is another accomplished member of the Harris family and another lawyer. A graduate of Stanford Law (where he met Maya and her then-toddler daughter), West has worked at high levels in both the private and public sectors. He served as associate attorney general under President Barack Obama and worked as general counsel of PepsiCo. West is now the chief legal officer of Uber, and has also emerged as a key adviser to his sister-in-law's campaign.

Although Dr Shyamala Gopalan passed away before she could see her daughter run for president, Kamala and Maya Harris credit their scientist mother with inspiring both of their careers.