Senate candidate Herschel Walker’s campaign confirms he has ‘secret’ son
Befitting an ex-running back, Herschel Walker went on offense Wednesday.
The Georgia GOP senate candidate and former NFL star’s campaign admitted a report that Walker has a son he hadn’t mentioned publicly was true, but denied Walker was trying to keep the offspring a secret.
Walker’s campaign manager told the Daily Beast the candidate is proud of his “children” and supports his younger son.
“To suggest that Herschel is ‘hiding’ the child because he hasn’t used him in his political campaign is offensive and absurd,” political operative Scott Paradise said.
The Daily Beast reported Tuesday that Walker, an outspoken critic of “fatherless households,” was involved in a paternity suit involving a young son from whom Walker “has apparently been estranged” for the past decade.
Neither Walker’s son nor the boy’s mother are named in the report, which says Walker was taken to court by the latter to obtain verification of paternity and child support a year after the child was born. According to the Daily Beast, a source familiar with the situation says Walker’s love child receives Christmas and birthday presents from his 60-year-old dad, who lives 1,500 miles away and “has not played an active parental role in raising his second son.”
Paradise also accused Walker’s opponent, Raphael Warnock, of playing dirty. The two are running in a tight Senate race.
“Raphael Warnock is currently engaged in both a nasty mudslinging campaign and a nasty custody dispute with his ex-wife,” he said.
The senator’s ex, whom he divorced in 2020, said in court filings in February that Warnock wasn’t fulfilling his end of the shared-custody agreement of their two children. She asked the court to make Warnock increase his child support, saying that his income had increased.
Herschel Walker (Megan Varner/)
The claim against Walker doesn’t seem consistent with remarks the former University of Georgia superstar athlete has made with regards to parenting.
“I want to apologize to the African-American community, because the fatherless home is a major, major problem,” Walker said in a 2020 interview on a right-wing podcast.
He boasted he has, in his life, stepped up for kids raised without father figures. Walker has a 22-year-old son named Christian, who he speaks of fondly and frequently. But there seems to be no record of his mentioning a second son.
In a 2020 interview with internet personalities “Diamond and Silk,” the former running back said if thing don’t work out between a mother and a father “you don’t leave the child.”
Walker co-parents Christian with his first wife and college sweetheart, Cindy Grossman, who got a protective order in 2005 claiming the Heisman Trophy winner was abusive and threatened to blow her “brains out.” Walker wrote about his battle with mental illness in a 2008 book in which, Axios reports, he admitted to having thought about harming himself and others. He remains an advocate for mental health treatment.
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Walker has made headlines throughout his senate run, thanks to past comments about his education, involvement with law enforcement and business ventures that appear to be unfounded.
In 2017, Walker said he’s “been in criminal justice all my life,” yet no police department seems to have any record of any formal involvement with Walker. In 2019, he claimed to have been an FBI agent, though the agency does not support that claim. He has also boasted about graduating in the upper 1% of his class with a criminal justice from the University of Georgia and having been his high school valedictorian. Walker later clarified he left school to play professional football and did not finish his degree. His claim of being a valedictorian doesn’t appear to be supported by evidence either. An April report by the Daily Beast alleged Walker exaggerated his involvement in certain businesses including a 2016 claim that he owns the nation’s largest upholstery company.
A poll published Tuesday by the Easter Carolina University’s Center for Survey Research puts Walker and Warnock locked in a tie in their senate battle. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said that with his reported net worth of between $29 million and $65 million at the end of 2021, Walker is far richer than Warnock, whose financial disclosures put his net worth at a maximum of $1.3 million. He has the support of former president Donald Trump.
With News Wire Services
