Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, 59, supposedly struck his then-girlfriend — a successful New York attorney — in the face so hard she spun around while in a valet line after an event at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2012, the three unnamed friends of the woman reportedly told the Daily Mail.
All three sources requested not to be named due to fear of retaliation from Emhoff, the Daily Mail said.
They shared a series of photos showing Emhoff posing with the woman in 2012, as well as other documents related to the allegations.
She declined to comment on the story, the outlet said.
Emhoff, a successful entertainment lawyer, and Harris met on a blind date in 2013, and then married in 2014.
The woman – who was not identified — allegedly called one of the friends sobbing in her cab immediately after the incident, the outlet said.
“It was hard to hear her because she was sobbing. She told me she was with a guy and he hit her,” the source, a New York businessman, recalled.
“It was very clear what she was telling me. She said she was with a guy, her date, she was at the Cannes Film Festival, and he hit her. She was in the car with the guy at the time.
“I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know whether to call the French police. I couldn’t get a hold of her after calling back.”
The friend claimed that he got more details about what happened later on.
“In later conversations, but pretty contemporaneous with that, she told me more about the guy,” he added.
“It was something like 3 a.m. They were trying to get out of there and they both had been drinking. There was a gigantic line for taxis.
“[Jane] went up to one of the valet guys, offered him 100 Euros or whatever, to get to the head of the line. She told me she put her hand on his shoulder. Doug apparently thought that she was flirting, and came over and slapped her in the face.”
“It was something like 3 a.m. They were trying to get out of there and they both had been drinking. There was a gigantic line for taxis.
Jane slapped Emhoff back, the businessman said.
“My impression is that he had a lot to drink. She was sobbing [on the phone afterwards], but she wasn’t slurring her words,” he said of Jane’s conversation with him right after the incident.
“She told me that she broke up with him that night.”
The pair had been dating for about three months, the Daily Mail said.
A second friend – another New York-based female attorney said that Jane also told her about the incident, the Daily Mail claimed.
“They had dinner. She said Doug was very charming, and it was lovely. Then I believe it was between 2-3am, it was still raging, but she was wearing four-inch heels and a floor-length gown, so it was time to depart,” the lawyer said.
“She said there’d been no fight before he hit her. You would have thought it was this fairytale trip.”