Second gentleman Doug Emhoff (Getty Images)
Doug Emhoff’s ex-girlfriend broke her silence on allegations, first leveled through three of her friends, that the second gentleman slapped her so hard she "spun around." The woman told the Daily Mail she is "disgusted" by Emhoff's "persona of a perfect spouse," calling the narrative "completely fabricated."
"What's frightening for a woman that's been on the other end of it, is watching this completely fabricated persona being portrayed," said the woman, whom the Mail identified only as "Jane."
"He's being held out to be the antithesis of who he actually is. And that is utterly shocking."
Earlier this month, three of Jane's friends told the Mail that Emhoff had hit his then-girlfriend while waiting in line for a valet at a 2012 gala dinner held alongside the Cannes Film Festival. Jane recounted the ordeal herself in the latest Mail piece.
"He slaps me so hard I spin around, and I'm in utter shock," she said. "There had been no fight, no argument."
"In that moment, his mask had dropped, and I saw his dark side," Jane continued. "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 do not want. … And the only thing I could get out of him was he thought I was hitting on the valet."
Jane provided a copy of her and Emhoff's itinerary for the 2012 trip, which included a Scandinavian Airlines flight from Newark, N.J., to Norway and then to France. Photos show Jane and Emhoff at the gala dinner in question, according to the Mail. Jane also provided records showing she and her husband donated to President Joe Biden's campaign and are "registered Democrats."
The allegations have called into question the media's portrayal of Emhoff. Mainstream outlets have dubbed Emhof a "wife guy" and a "model of masculinity."
"Every time I see Doug on TV portraying the persona of a perfect spouse and non-toxic man, I wonder if Najen is watching too and feeling as disgusted as I am," she said, referencing Emhoff's daughter's nanny. Emhoff admitted to cheating on his first wife with Naylor after a Daily Mail report revealed that he impregnated her.
Jane, a New York attorney, recalled other times Emhoff objectified her, including when he photographed her in a bikini but did not include her head.
"The picture he took of me did not include my head … he was just giggling about it like a pubescent boy," she said. "'It was gross, and I felt so humiliated. In retrospect, I believe he was intentionally objectifying me to diminish me. That's the kind of person he is."
Earlier this month, Emhoff’s coworkers at the white-shoe law firm Venable accused him of hiring a part-time model as his "trophy secretary," acting like an "asshole" and "misogynist," "retaliating against" young female staffers who "didn't flirt back" with him, the Daily Mail reported.
In an Oct. 3 statement to Semafor, an unnamed Emhoff spokesperson said that "any suggestion that he would or has ever hit a woman is false." Emhoff later called "tabloid stories" about his "personal life" a "distraction" during an interview with MSNBC's Joe Scarborough.
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