Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign has encountered another set-back after he allegedly admitted to having fathered two children with two seperate women.
The revelations began on Tuesday when The Daily Beast reported about a 10-year-old boy who was an unknown son of Mr Walker.
The article claimed that the boy’s mother had sued Mr Walker in order to obtain a declaration of paternity and child support, which the Republican paid in 2014.
Late on Wednesday night, Mr Walker acknowledged having a 13-year-old son with a different mother, an adult daughter from a relationship in his early 20s after enquiries from The Daily Beast.
The identities of the children have been withheld to protect their privacy.
In a statement to The Independent on Thursday, Mr Walker said he supported all of his children and had never denied their existence, or wanted to “use them as props to win a political campaign”.
“I have four children. Three sons and a daughter. They’re not ‘undisclosed’ – they’re my kids. I support them all and love them all,” the Republican said. “I’ve never denied my children”.
“What parent would want their child involved in garbage, gutter politics like this?,” he continued, adding: “Saying I hide my children because I don’t discuss them with reporters to win a campaign? That’s outrageous. I can take the heat, that’s politics – but leave my kids alone.“
Campaign manager Scott Paradise told CNN on Tuesday that Mr Walker was “proud of his children” and “had a child years ago when he wasn’t married. He’s supported the child and continues to do so,” in reference to the 13-year-old.
Mr Paradise added: “To suggest that Herschel is ‘hiding’ the child because he hasn’t used him in his political campaign is offensive and absurd”.
On social media, revelations that Mr Walker had “secretly” fathered two children following a 2002 divorce were criticised because of his rhetoric on fatherless homes.
“Herschel Walker out here lecturing Black men on fatherhood and ain’t seen his kid since Obama’s first term,” wrote Bakari Sellers, a former member of the South Carolina legislature.
The comments appeared to reference two interviews in which Mr Walker attacked absent fathers – particularly in Black families – which he suggest in 2020 was a “major, major problem”.
He added in a 2021 interview: “If you have a child with a woman, even if you have to leave that woman — even if you have to leave that woman — you don’t leave that child.”
“The father leaves in the Black family. He leaves the boys alone so they’ll be raised by their mom,” Mr Walker said before making a controversial comparison to the dynamic being not too dissimilar to the separations that took place during the era of slavery.
Mr Walker has previously been accused of making false claims on his campaign website, including that he graduated from the University of Georgia in the top one per cent of his class. That claim was later removed after CNN and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution carried out a fact-check.
He is facing Democrat senator Raphael Warnock in November and has received the enodorsement of former Republican president Donald Trump.
The Heisman Trophy winner touts family values as being at the core of his campaign, and mentions on his campaign website how his parents taught him “faith in God and the small-town values of discipline and sacrifice”.
In the lead up to the midterms, Mr Walker’s first wife has brought forward allegations of the Georgia Senate hopeful being “physically abusive”, claiming that on one occasion, he threatened to “blow” her brains out and later received a protective order against her ex-husband, which led to a judge temporarily removed Mr Walker’s right to carry a gun, the Associated Press reported.
For his part, Mr Walker has said in recent interviews that he’s “accountable” for his previous alleged violent actions against his ex-wife, and that others shouldn’t be “ashamed” about facing issues concerning their mental health, but he didn’t go into specifics in those conversations and maintained that he has never broken the law.
Mr Walker has made many claims that have not turned out to be accurate. His campaign website incorrectly claimed that he had graduated from the University of Georgia, when he had left in his junior year to play professional football.
He also faced criticism this week after falsely asserting he had been an FBI agent and a police officer.
