Republican U.S. Senate candidate for Georgia Herschel Walker speaks during a campaign event in Macon, Georgia, on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
Elijah Nouvelage | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Herschel Walker, the Georgia Republican nominee for the US Senate, confirmed he has two other previously unknown children, adding another “secret” child the former soccer star admitted earlier this week.
Walker now says he has four children, only one of whom was previously known.
Walker’s disclosure marks the second time this week that the former star soccer player, who has repeatedly publicly criticized absent African American fathers, has been forced to admit he had illegitimate children after media reports of their existence.
Until earlier this week, Walker, whose bid to impeach Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock was heavily backed by former President Donald Trump, had only publicly mentioned his 22-year-old son, Christian Walker.
On Tuesday, The Daily Beast revealed that Walker had a “secret” 10-year-old son whom he has not played an active role in raising.
On Thursday morning, The Daily Beast announced he has a third illegitimate son who is now 13 years old. In the same article, the outlet also reported that Walker has a now-grown daughter, who he had when he was about 20, and a star running back on the University of Georgia football team.
Walker’s campaign told CNBC Thursday that the children’s ages were correct, as reported by The Daily Beast.
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In a statement released by his campaign on Thursday, Walker claimed he didn’t tell voters about his other children because it would expose them to unwanted attention during a political race. The campaign did not respond to CNBC’s question about how many women had children with Walker.
“I have four children. Three sons and a daughter,” Walker said in the statement.
“They are not ‘unknown’ – they are my children. I support them all and love them all. he said.
Walker added, “I just chose not to use them as props to win a political campaign. What parent would want their child involved in such trash and gutter politics?
“To say I hide my children because I don’t discuss them with reporters to win a campaign? That’s rude. I can take the heat, it’s politics – but leave my kids alone,” Walker said.
It is very unusual, but not uncommon, for US political candidates not to identify their children when running for office.
In a 2020 interview, Walker, who is black, said, “I want to apologize to the African American community because the fatherless home is a big, big problem.”
Months earlier, Walker had said in another interview that men needed to become “fathers of those fatherless” children in neighborhoods with children whose fathers were not present in their lives.
The revelations about Walker’s previously unknown children come as he continues to face criticism for making controversial claims about his business records and other aspects of his life.
On Monday, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Walker had said in speeches and statements that he worked with the Cobb County, Georgia police force and also claimed to have been an FBI agent.
“I worked for law enforcement, didn’t you all know that?” Walker said in 2019, “I spent time at Quantico at the FBI training school. You didn’t know I’m an agent?”
Walker is not an FBI agent and has never been.
The newspaper said the Cobb County Police Department reported no record of any involvement with him and that the FBI did not respond to questions about Walker.
A campaign spokeswoman told the Journal-Constitution that Walker “has supported and worked with law enforcement for years, including speaking with police about mental health issues, leading women’s self-defense training courses and attending the FBI Academy at Quantico.” “.
The spokeswoman also said Walker was “an honorary assemblyman in Cobb County along with three other counties in Georgia, but did not identify which,” the newspaper reported.
The Washington Post noted Wednesday that Walker’s December campaign erased the false claim that he graduated from college.
In April, The Daily Beast ran a story entitled “Herschel Walker claims to own companies that don’t exist,” which said it uncovered “previously unverified and particularly egregious false claims” by the candidate.
