Doug Emhoff's Friendly Ex-Wife Says He's Doing 'Great' in D.C., Reflects on How He's Better Husband to Kamala

Official White House Photo by Cameron Smith Doug Emhoff

Whether he's reading to preschoolers or joining his wife on an overseas trip to meet with the French president, there's bound to be a learning curve as the first second gentleman of the United States.

Less than a year on the job, how has Doug Emhoff handled the pressure of the political spotlight while simultaneously balancing the one-step-behind obligations as spouse to Vice President Kamala Harris?

"He's doing great!" his ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, wrote in a tweet Monday. "We are all so proud."

Since their marriage of 16 years ended in 2008, Kerstin and Doug — who have two children together, son Cole, 27, and daughter Ella, 22 — have striven to be supportive exes.

Even when she learned that Doug was dating Harris, who was the California attorney general at the time, "I just thought, 'Wow, that's cool. Don't mess this up!' " Kerstin said in 2020.

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He didn't: Emhoff married Harris in 2014, equipped with some lessons learned from his first marriage. For example, Emhoff tells TIME he now tries to "listen more than you talk."

Kerstin Emhoff/Instagram From left: Kamala Harris and Doug, Cole and Kerstin Emhoff

"Of course he's a better husband, and that's great," Kerstin says in the same profile. "That's how it should be."

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In a 2020 interview with PEOPLE, Harris called Kerstin a "very close friend."

"She and I became a duo of cheerleaders in the bleachers at Ella's swim meets and basketball games, often to Ella's embarrassment," Harris wrote in Elle in 2019. "We sometimes joke that our modern family is almost a little too functional."

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

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Cheering seems to run in the blended family, something Harris is thankful for given the added responsibilities of being vice president, a wife and a stepmom to the Emhoff kids, who call her "Momala" and their dad "Doug."

"One of the keys to my relationship with Cole and Ella is their mom," Harris said just before the 2020 election. "The thing about blended families — if everyone approaches it in the way that there's plenty of love to share, then it works."