Herschel Walker, the anti-marriage equality former football running back and current Republican nominee running for a U.S. Senate seat from Georgia, has made a career out of speaking out against absentee fathers in the Black community.
Christian Walker, the candidate’s flamboyant 22 year-old son and a social media celebrity in his own right, has taken up his father’s cause, as well, decrying the so-called crisis in a series of over-the-top TikTok videos.
Related: Christian pastor calls for every gay person to be lined up & “shot in the back of the head”
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But what fans of the anti-gay father/son duo didn’t know until now is: Herschel Walker fathered a second son 10 years ago that he’s not in contact with.
Walker acknowledged as much after The Daily Beast revealed it had confirmed the boy’s parentage. The child’s mother sued Walker a year after giving birth to obtain a declaration of paternity and child support, which she won two years later. Walker’s second son, and Christian’s half-brother, took his last name.
It might come as a surprise considering how much importance the Walkers put on fathers being involved in their kids’ lives, and how much they blame substantive economic and social problems on fatherless homes.
“I want to apologize to the African American community, because the fatherless home is a major, major problem,” Walker said in an interview in 2020.
It has also been a theme in Christian Walker’s social media content.
@catstanpage Christian Walker shouting in his car as usual saying, “WE HAVE A FATHERLESS… FATHERLESS CHILD PANDEMIC IN AMERICA!!! RAISE YOUR KIDS!!! RAISE YOUR KIDS!!!”. #fyp #foryoupage #viral #fypgakni
@officialchristianwalk1r Get home. #fyp #foryou #parenting #fathers
@christianwalk1er FLM! FATHERS LIVES MATTERR 💙 #christianwalk1r #PrimeDayDealsDance #foryou
According to a 2013 petition from attorney Andres Alonso, the other child’s mother and Herschel Walker separated about eight months before the child was born on May 31, 2012, in New York County.
“The child’s mother is a graduate student at Columbia University struggling to make ends meet. Unfortunately, Mr. Walker has thus far decided not to take full financial responsibility for the care of his alleged son,” the petition states. “We hope that with the filing of the petition Mr. Walker will finally acknowledge the true extent of his support obligations.”
More than a year later, Walker was ordered to pay child support for the boy, who was already more than two-years-old.
“Herschel had a child years ago when he wasn’t married,” responded campaign manager Scott Paradise in a statement. “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.”
Bakari Sellers, a former Democratic state lawmaker from South Carolina, called Walker out on the hypocrisy, posting on Twitter: Walker is “out here lecturing black men on fatherhood and ain’t seen his kid since Obama’s first term.”
.@HerschelWalker out here lecturing black men on fatherhood and ain’t seen his kid since Obama’s first term.
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) June 15, 2022
In 2021, Walker compared a Black father leaving his family to forced family separation during slavery: “The father leaves in the Black family. He leaves the boys alone so they’ll be raised by their mom. If you have a child with a woman, even if you have to leave that woman — even if you have to leave that woman — you don’t leave that child.”
Both Herschel Walker and Christian Walker have revealed anti-gay bias in public comments.
Herschel Walker has said that he wants the Supreme Court to end the right to marriage equality in the U.S., telling the attendees of a Columbus, Georgia rally that he would “stop the gay weddings” and that “each state should determine that.”
Christian Walker, a Republican like his father, says he’s attracted to men but doesn’t like being called gay.
“Don’t call- Don’t put that ghetto G-word on me,” he said in a Twitch stream in January. “I just like masculine men. I’m not a— I don’t wanna be lumped in with the rainbow people.”
And he confirmed Pride is not his thing in a recent Tik Tok post:
@hugs4nicknels0n But ngl he’s funny tho.. 😭 #christianwalker #christianwalk1r #happypride #happypridemonth🏳️🌈 #fyp #foryou #happygaymonthbcykugayandstuff
A new poll this week from East Carolina University’s Center for Survey Research shows Herschel Walker and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) in a dead heat for Georgia’s senate seat less than five months before the midterm election.
