Tomorrow is Father’s Day, but it’s safe to say it won’t be a very happy one for Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who claims to be worried about the problem of fatherlessness in the African-American community, but was exposed as an absentee father of two sons and a daughter.
According to The Daily Beast, which first broke the story:
A day after The Daily Beast broke the news that Herschel Walker had a secret 10-year-old son he fathered out of wedlock, the football star-turned-politician confirmed late Wednesday night that he has yet another son with a different woman that the public doesn’t know about—as well as a daughter that he had in college.
The revelations come in the middle of Walker’s competitive race to unseat Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) and after many public comments Walker has made about absent fathers in the Black community.
Walker also suggested this week that celebrities are to blame for making Americans dispirited and depressed:
“I think some of the biggest problems going on in our country today, we have so many celebrities telling people that they can’t do it. Telling a lot of people, ‘Oh, well, you got to feel bad for yourself, feel sorry for yourself.’ Which is sad to me. They’ve done it, but they’re telling you you can’t do it. And it’s like, you did it, why they can’t do it? I think they tell all the kids they can’t do it, making our kids feel sorry for themselves.”
That quote rubbed actor Henry Winkler, who rose to fame in the 1970s playing Fonzie on “Happy Days” and he responded to Walker on Twitter:
And now Winkler is expanding on his tweet and his thoughts about Walker, appearing on CNN Saturday afternoon and telling host Jim Acosta:
“The general premise has bothered me forever. I always thought it was so weird so many people use that kind of tactic of saying, oh, you’re on television, you shouldn’t say what you think, and I’m thinking that is the craziest thing I ever heard. And then, when I saw Mr. Walker’s tweet, I thought to myself, first of all, we are, as a profession, we are uplifting. That’s number one.”
“Number two, why shouldn’t I have the same point of view he has the right to. He’s a celebrity. What is he talking about? He talks about being an absentee father. He has a couple of children he hasn’t even mentioned nor has seen that we can say anything for a vote is nauseating.”
Winkler, it should be noted, is everything Herschel Walker isn’t when it comes to being a devoted husband and father. He’s been married to the same woman since 1978 and has two children: A son, Max, who is now a screenwriter and director, and Zoe, who was a preschool teacher for many years.
Father’s Day is a very special day, as it should be. But Herschel Walker is in no position to preach to anyone on fatherhood or being a celebrity.