Doug Emhoff’s ex-girlfriend says she was ‘embarrassed and humiliated’ after he allegedly slapped her

A former girlfriend of second gentleman Doug Emhoff has decided to speak out for herself about an incident 12 years ago in which he allegedly struck her, confirming her shock and anger at the assault.

The woman, a New York lawyer who used the pseudonym “Jane,” told The Daily Mail on Thursday in an interview that Mr. Emhoff flew into a rage and smacked her when they were dating over a decade ago. Previous accounts cited friends she had told about the incident.

According to Jane, the two had traveled to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival in the South of France where he left her “embarrassed and humiliated” by slapping her following a gala dinner. She said Mr. Emhoff reacted violently after she handed a car valet the equivalent of $100 to get her and Mr. Emhoff to the front of a taxi line.

“As I’m talking to him, Doug got out of the line, comes up, turns me around by my right shoulder. I’m completely caught off guard, I’m not bracing, I’m in four-inch heels, wearing a full-length gown and it’s between 2-3 a.m.,” she told the outlet. “He slaps me so hard I spin around, and I’m in utter shock.”

She said, “There had been no fight, no argument. It had been a completely fantastic event. I am so furious. The only thing I could think to do was slap him back. I slapped him on one side, and on the other cheek with the other hand.”

In an Oct. 3 statement to Semafor, a spokesperson for Mr. Emhoff said “this report is untrue” and that “any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false.”

The Washington Times reached out to the spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris and the Harris campaign for comment.

Jane said she saw Mr. Emhoff’s “dark side” in the incident and rushed into the car. But she said Mr. Emhoff forced himself into the car as well despite her attempt to close the door on him.

“I intended to go back to the hotel without him. So I was shutting the car door, but he forced his way into the car, which I did not want,” she said.

“I can’t believe he just slapped me. I think I said to him in the car, ’What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you do that?’ And the only thing I could get out of him was he thought I was hitting on the valet.”

Jane said she proceeded to call a New York businessman friend of hers to tell him what happened, while Mr. Emhoff was in the car with her.

“This was the first time I saw Doug’s ugly side,” Jane said. “I was in shock. I wanted somebody to know where I was, and what happened. I was freaked out because I thought I knew this person. But I don’t, and he’s in the car with me. I also wanted Doug to see me on the phone telling somebody.”

Despite the accusation, Mr. Emhoff has boasted in friendly media venues about supporting his wife and having feminist values.

“Every time I see Doug on TV portraying the persona of a perfect spouse and non-toxic man, I wonder if Najen [Naylor] is watching too and feeling as disgusted as I am,” Jane said. Ms. Naylor is a former nanny with whom he had an affair.

Jane’s relationship with Mr. Emhoff began in 2012 and lasted just three months. Less than a month into their dating, she planned to move to the U.K. after a job offer arose.

Mr. Emhoff, who was in the middle of divorcing his first wife, appeared willing to leave his family, which included his two children, and move with her there, she told The Daily Mail.

Jane said that Mr. Emhoff eventually told her about his affair with Ms. Naylor.

“All I did was ask him one question, and he told me the whole story,” she said. “Without skipping a beat, and staring straight ahead at the road, he tells me he had an affair with his daughter’s teacher and that subsequently she claimed that she was pregnant.” Mr. Emhoff acknowledged the affair to CNN in August.

The Daily Mail reported that Ms. Naylor was impregnated by Mr. Emhoff but lost the child. Mr. Emhoff never confirmed that detail and Ms. Naylor would not comment. According to Jane, Mr. Emhoff also told her that Ms. Naylor retained a lawyer and threatened legal action.

Jane said that Mr. Emhoff told her he settled with Ms. Naylor for about $80,000, and had Ms. Naylor sign an NDA.

Los Angeles Police Department records reviewed by The Daily Mail show that police were sent to a house in a “level three” life-threatening emergency call, where Ms. Naylor was living around the time she was allegedly pregnant, at 8:14 p.m. on June 28, 2009.

Jane said she and Mr. Emhoff never spoke again after the 2012 trip to Cannes, but when she read in 2014 he was dating Ms. Harris, who was Attorney General of California at the time, many of the memories came back.

“I was wondering, does she know?” Jane asked. She said she felt it necessary to tell a close friend, a female top executive, her story about Mr. Emhoff in 2018 after they watched then-Sen. Harris grill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh about alleged sexual assault during his confirmation hearing.

Jane brushed off suggestions that her accusations against Mr. Emhoff are politically motivated, saying that she and her husband have been registered Democrats who voted for President Biden in the Democratic presidential primary and 2020 election and donated more than $10,000 to Mr. Biden’s campaigns.