Who are Kamala Harris’ parents? What to know about Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris (2024)

Vice President Kamala Harris finds herselfin a close race for the presidency, as her campaign heads down the home stretch in her bid to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump.

The two adversaries previously met in their lone debate on Sept. 10 in Philadelphia, where they laid out their cases in front of a nationwide audience. Since then, the two candidates have been crisscrossing the country in the hopes of swaying voters come Election Day on Nov. 5.

The public is no doubt familiar with Harris and Trump by now, although Harris’ profile rose when she was eventually elevated to the Democratic nominee after President Joe Bidendropped outof the race in July.

Harris comes from an ethnically diverse background, with an accomplished set of parents.

Harris' father is Donald Harris, who was born in Jamaica, and her mother is the late Shyamala Gopalan, who was born in India.

Kamala Harris also has a younger sister named Maya.

Maya and Kamala Harris’ parents met and fell in love at the University of California, Berkeley, where they were both pursuing graduate studies. They married and had two daughters and divorced when the girls were young.

Now, as the Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris has spoken proudly of her parents and the values they instilled in her.

"My early memories of our parents together are very joyful ones. A home filled with laughter and music: Aretha, Coltrane and Miles," Harris said in her speech at the Democratic National Convention in August. "At the park, my mother would say, 'Stay close.' But my father would say, as he smiled, 'Run, Kamala, run. Don’t be afraid. Don’t let anything stop you.' From my earliest years, he taught me to be fearless."

As she accepted her party's nomination, Harris also quoted her mother.

“My mother had another lesson she used to teach: Never let anyone tell you who you are, you show them who you are,” she said. “America, let us show each other and the world who we are and what we stand for: freedom, opportunity, compassion, dignity, fairness and endless possibilities.”

Earlier that night, Maya Harris also spoke about their mother.

“She raised us to believe that we could be and do anything, and we believed her,” the younger Harris said. “You see, Mommy understood the power and the possibility that come with knowing and showing who you truly are.”

Read on to learn more about Kamala Harris' parents.

Donald Harris and Shyamala Gopalan

Harris has her mother to thank for a quote that's become a popular meme as she kicked off her 2024 campaign for the presidency.

"You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” Harris said at a swearing-in ceremony in May 2023. “You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you."

In that speech, Harris was quoting her late mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who would use the "coconut tree" saying to remind a young Harris that she was a product of her surroundings, her parents and the people who came before her.

Harris has spoken over the years about how her parents, especially her mother, influenced and inspired her to pursue her dreams.

“My mother was the first person to tell me that my thoughts and experiences mattered,” Harris, 60, wrote in a Mother’s Day post on Facebook in 2022. “My mother would often say to me: 'Kamala, you may be the first to do many things. Make sure you are not the last.'"

Harris' distinctive laugh also comes from her mom, she told Drew Barrymore on the actor's talk show in April 2024.

“I have my mother’s laugh," Harris said. "I grew up around a bunch of women in particular who laughed from the belly. They laughed — they would sit around the kitchen and drinking their coffee, telling big stories with big laughs.”

Who are Kamala Harris' parents?

Harris, who was quickly endorsed by Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee after he announced his decision to drop out of the presidential race, is the eldest daughter of economist Donald Harris, who was born in 1938, and breast cancer researcher Gopalan, who died of cancer at age 70 in 2009.

The vice president has shared a handful of throwback photos of her parents on social media over the years, including one of her as a little girl with her mother and Maya.

“My mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a scientist who had two goals in life: to cure breast cancer and to raise her two daughters,” Harris wrote in the caption of a March 2024 Instagram post. “As @potus signs a new Executive Order to expand and improve research on women’s health, I am thinking of her.”

Harris' parents were immigrants and met as graduate students

Donald Harris was born in Jamaica, and Gopalan was born in southern India.

Their paths converged when they both moved to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

They were both members of a Black intellectual study group, later known as the Afro-American Association, which hosted discussions of African history and the African-American experience, according to The New York Times.

Though she is Indian and not Black, Gopalan, as a person of color, was welcomed into the group, former members told the publication in 2020.

“We talked then, continued to talk at a subsequent meeting, and at another, and another,” Donald Harris also told The New York Times, recalling how he formed his relationship with Gopalan in 1962.

In her 2019 memoir, “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey," the vice president described her dad as a “brilliant student.” She also shared how her mother made the unlikely journey from India to Berkeley.

“Like my father, she was a gifted student, and when she showed a passion for science, her parents encouraged and supported her,” Harris wrote.

Gopalan earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Delhi at just 19 years old, and went on to earn a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in nutrition and endocrinology at age 25, her obituary reads.

In her book, Harris wrote that her mother’s family had expected her to return to India once she had finished her studies in the U.S., and to have an arranged marriage.

“But fate had other plans. She and my father met and fell in love at Berkeley while participating in the civil rights movement,” the vice president wrote. “Her marriage — and her decision to stay in the United States — were the ultimate acts of self determination and love.”

Harris added that she was raised to appreciate her multifaceted heritage.

“My mother, grandparents, aunts and uncle instilled us with pride in our South Asian roots," she wrote in her memoir. "Our classical Indian names harked back to our heritage, and we were raised with a strong awareness of and appreciation for Indian culture.”

At the same time, she says her mother "understood very well that she was raising two Black daughters" in America.

"She knew that her adopted homeland would see Maya and me as Black girls, and she was determined to make sure we would grow into confident, proud Black women," she said.

Her parents were active in the civil rights movement

In her convention speech, Harris said she inherited her parents’ passion for fighting for civil rights and social justice.

"I grew up immersed in the ideals of the civil rights movement. My parents had met at a Civil Rights gathering, and they made sure that we learned about civil rights leaders, including the lawyers like Thurgood Marshall and Constance Baker, Motley those who battled in the courtroom to make real the promise of America," she said.

In her memoir, the vice president said her parents often brought her in a stroller to Civil Rights marches.

“I have young memories of a sea of legs moving about, of the energy and shouts and chants. Social justice was a central part of family discussions,” she wrote.

“My mother would laugh telling a story she loved about the time when I was fussing as a toddler,” she continued. “‘What do you want?’ she asked, trying to soothe me. ‘Fweedom!’ I yelled back.”

Harris said her mom and godmother marched against the Vietnam War and saw Martin Luther King Jr. speak at UC Berkeley.

She added that she learned from her mother that it “was service to others that gave life purpose and meaning.”

Her parents separated when Harris was young

Harris’ parents married in 1963 and welcomed two daughters: Kamala in 1964 and Maya in 1967.

The vice president shared an early memory of her parents in her memoir, remembering how her dad encouraged her to run and play outdoors.

“He would turn to my mother and say, ‘Just let her run, Shyamala,’” she recalled in the book. “And then he’d turn to me and say, ‘Run, Kamala. As fast as you can. Run!’”

However, within a few years, their union soured.

“In time, things got harder. They stopped being kind to each other. I knew they loved each other very much, but it seemed they’d become like oil and water,” Harris recounted in her memoir. “By the time I was 5 years old, the bond between them had given way under the weight of incompatibility.”

She said they separated around that time, and divorced a few years later.

Harris wrote that her father “remained a part of our lives” and said she and her sister would see him on weekends and summers in Palo Alto, California.

However, she said, “It was really my mother who took charge of our upbringing. She was the one most responsible for shaping us into the women we would become.”

Donald Harris opened up about his early memories with his daughters in a 2019 essay for Jamaica Global, recalling a family visit to Orange Hill, Jamaica, in 1970.

“Upon reaching the top of a little hill ... Kamala, ever the adventurous and assertive one, suddenly broke from the pack ... and took off like a gazelle in Serengeti, leaping over rocks and shrubs and fallen branches, in utter joy and unleashed curiosity, to explore that same enticing terrain,” he said. “I quickly followed her with my trusted Canon Super Eight movie camera to record the moment.”

He also opened up about his and Gopalan’s eventual divorce and custody battle.

“This early phase of interaction with my children came to an abrupt halt in 1972 when, after a hard-fought custody battle in the family court of Oakland, California, the context of the relationship was placed within arbitrary limits imposed by a court-ordered divorce settlement based on the false assumption by the State of California that fathers cannot handle parenting,” he said.

However, he said he never gave up “on my love for my children or reneging on my responsibilities as their father.”

Her mother was a breast cancer researcher and her father is a prominent economist

Donald Harris is a prominent economist. He served as a professor of economics at Stanford University from 1972 to 1998, and is now a professor emeritus.

In addition to his academic role, he served as an economic consultant to the government of Jamaica, and as an adviser to multiple prime ministers, according to his Stanford biography.

Harris has often spoken with pride about her mother’s work as a renowned breast cancer researcher.

“She had only two goals in life: to raise her two daughters and to end breast cancer,” Harris wrote in her memoir.

Gopalan received numerous honors for her work as a research scientist. Notably, her discovery related to the hormone-responsiveness of breast tissue led to many subsequent advances, according to Breast Cancer Action.

In a 2020 campaign video, Harris said her mom used to take her and Maya to the lab with her on weekends.

Watching her mother work, she said in the video, shaped her own worldview of believing in possibilities, and remaining “unburdened by what has been.”

In her nomination acceptance speech, Harris opened up about how her mother was often underestimated as a woman of color with an accent.

"I saw how the world would sometimes treat her, but my mother never lost her cool," Harris said. "She was tough, courageous, a trailblazer in the fight for women’s health, and she taught Maya and me a lesson that Michelle (Obama) mentioned the other night. She taught us to never complain about injustice, but do something about it. Do something about it."

Lindsay Lowe

Lindsay Lowe has been a regular contributor to TODAY.com since 2016, covering pop culture, style, home and other lifestyle topics. She is also working on her first novel, a domestic drama set in rural Regency England.

Ariana Brockington

Ariana Brockington is a trending news reporter at TODAY digital. She is based in Los Angeles.

Who are Kamala Harris’ parents? What to know about Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris (2024)
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