Even by the low (or is it high?) standards of the Republican combination of moralizing and hypocrisy, this is a whopper. Herschel Walker, who has had a lot to say about the absence of fathers in Black communities and the importance of being an active father and role model to one’s children, has a previously undisclosed 10-year-old son who is not in his life.
Walker makes much of his relationship with his 22-year-old son Christian, touting the harmonious co-parenting between himself, his ex-wife, his current wife, and his ex-wife’s current husband. He has also spoken publicly about the importance of mentoring fatherless children. Meanwhile, he fathered a child a decade ago whose mother had to take Walker to court to get a declaration of paternity and child support.
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A source close to the child’s family told The Daily Beast that Walker sends Christmas and birthday presents, but that’s it for involvement beyond what the courts have required. A campaign spokesman said in a statement, “Herschel had a child years ago when he wasn’t married. He’s supported the child and continues to do so. He’s proud of his children. To suggest that Herschel is ‘hiding’ the child because he hasn’t used him in his political campaign is offensive and absurd.”
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He could, on the other hand, act as a father to the child through something other than financial support without using him as a campaign prop. Just saying!
In a 2020 interview, Walker said he had been “like a father to some of those kids that had never had fathers.” But not to one of his own two children (that we know of).
In another 2020 interview, with Diamond and Silk, Walker said, “I say what we need to do is let’s go in all the neighborhood [sic] and let’s become fathers of those fatherless child [sic]. Meaning let’s try to direct them in the right way.” Again, not something he’s done for his own child.
In a 2018 speech, he said that just as parenthood was important, so was “adults getting involved with kids, because some kid [sic] do not have a parent, a mother or a father.”
“So I don’t think I want to leave that kid behind. I want to be involved with him as well,” he added.
Maybe when he said all those things, he was hoping that someone listening would get involved in the life of the child he himself was not acting as a parent to beyond writing checks. Or maybe it just sounded good at the time and he didn’t think of his younger child at all.
Walker’s comments on fatherlessness in the Black community don't stop at emphasizing the importance of mentoring the affected children. He has also had plenty to say about the responsibility of fathers.
(While claiming that fatherlessness is a major problem in Black communities never seems to get old for a certain type of moralizer, reality is that a significant majority of Black fathers live with their children—and by certain measures, Black fathers are more involved with their children than white fathers, whether or not they live with those children. Additionally, mass incarceration has pulled many parenting-age Black men out of their communities.)
Speaking to Diamond and Silk, Walker connected the present day to the forced family separation of slavery, saying, “the problem we have, is we’re going back to the mentality that the father leaves in the Black family. He leaves and leaves the boys alone so they have to be raised by their mom.” He called on Black people to move past that mentality, saying if a man has “a child with a woman, even if you have to leave that woman … you don’t leave the child.”
Walker has often talked about his love for his older son Christian, saying in 2017, “He’s 17, he’s trying to pull away. I tell him, ‘Hey, dude, until you’re big enough to throw me off, boy I’m going to kiss you and hug you.’” He told Diamond and Silk that he, his ex-wife, his current wife, and his ex-wife’s current husband “get along because it ain’t about us no more”—it’s about Christian. Really wonderful words that Walker has only applied to one of his children.
What we don't know from the current reports is if the mother of Walker’s younger son wants him in her child’s life, or her own. It’s an important question given that multiple women he’s been in relationships with have accused Walker of violence and death threats. She and the child deserve all the privacy they want. But Walker? In addition to being a prolific liar and scammer and abusive partner and supporter of disastrous policies, add absent father.
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