Who is Kamala Harris’ much older ex, former mayor Willie Brown – and did they have an affair? The vice-president was 29 when she met a then 60-year-old Brown, who also acted in The Princess Diaries

In late July, Brown gave an interview to UK newspaper The Times, which put to him the criticism that Harris owed her career to him after he helped appoint her to several well paying boards in the 90s, giving her a leg up to where she is now. “I don’t think she owes her career to me,” he told the publication. “I think talent is what got her where she is. And she has been through the chairs: DA [district attorney], attorney general, US senator and now vice-president. That’s an indication that she had to be talented.”

The Times notes that Harris was 29 when she met then-60-year-old “California power broker” Brown in the 1990s. The source adds that the relationship lasted about two years, and Brown was separated from his wife at the time.

Here’s what we know about Willie Brown, Kamala Harris’ influential ex:

Willie Lewis Brown Jr is a former mayor of San Francisco

Brown, who is now 90, has had a game-changing career in politics. According to The California State University, he served as the first African-American mayor of San Francisco from 1996 to 2004.

Per his bio on Britannica, he came from a poor background in rural Texas before moving to San Francisco where he made a name for himself in law and politics. He was also the first African-American speaker of the California State Assembly, per the same source.

He’s acted in several films

How did Kamala Harris meet Willie Brown?

Per The Times, Harris met Brown at some point after she joined the Alameda county district attorney’s office, while he was a speaker of the California assembly. The newspaper notes that their relationship became a local media sensation at the time. One article published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1994 told how she attended Brown’s 60th birthday party, where guest Clint Eastwood “spilled champagne on the speaker’s new steady, Kamala Harris”.

Did Willie Brown have an affair with Kamala Harris?

According to People, Brown was technically married at the time he began dating Harris. However, the same source adds that he had reportedly been estranged from his wife, Blanche Brown, since 1981. So the claim that Harris “had an affair with a married man” is factually correct, though misleading as Brown and his wife had been apart for over a decade, per Reuters. What’s more, Harris and Brown weren’t keeping their romance a secret, because they made numerous public appearances together.

Brown has not been shy in discussing their romance either. In a 2019 op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle, he stated: “I’ve been peppered with calls from the national media about my ‘relationship’ with Kamala Harris, particularly since it became obvious that she was going to run for president. Most of them, I have not returned.”

He added: “Yes, we dated. It was more than 20 years ago. Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker.”