Sinema admits a romance with her security guard as she fights ex-wife’s lawsuit
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – Old U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema According to legal documents, he admits to having a romantic relationship with a member of his security detail that began when he was an MP. But he also argues that he should not be subject to any restrictions. The lawsuit filed by the man’s ex-wife The person who blamed Sinema for the breakup of the marriage.
The North Carolina federal court lawsuit seeks financial damages from Sinema, who represented Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives and later in the Senate during a term that ended early last year.
Heather Ammel claimed in her lawsuit that she and her husband, Matthew, had a “good and loving marriage” and that there was “true love and affection” between them before Cinema intervened and pursued her even though she knew he was married.
In a signed statement dated March 7 attached to a lawsuit response filed this week, Sinema said her relationship with Matthew Ammel “became romantic and intimate” in late May 2024 and “physically intimate” in California, New York, Colorado, Arizona, and Washington, D.C., over the next several months. Ammels left in November 2024, the lawsuit stated.
North Carolina is one of the few states that allows jilted spouses to file “alienation of affection” lawsuits to seek compensation from a third party responsible for the dissolution of their marriage.
Sinema’s affidavit rejects Heather Ammel’s allegations that Sinema made phone calls and sent Internet communications knowing that her husband was physically present in North Carolina and was at times present with his wife and the couple’s children. In his letter requesting that the case be dismissed, movie lawyer Steven Epstein sent a message to Matthew Hamel while he was in North Carolina, finding a new place to live and “his marriage was already over.”
Sinema’s “conduct regarding her romantic relationship with Mr. Ammel did not connect her to North Carolina in any meaningful way,” Epstein wrote Thursday, adding that no jury would believe that single message “was about the destruction of love and affection in marriage.”
Sinema’s head of security hired Ammel after he retired from the military in 2022, and in early 2024, Heather Ammel discovered messages “of a romantic and sensual nature” between Sinema and her husband on the Signal messaging app, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Matthew Ammel stopped wearing his wedding ring that summer and Sinema gave him a job on the Senate staff while he continued working as her bodyguard.
The lawsuit was first filed in North Carolina state court late last year but was moved to federal court in January.
Sinema declined re-election to the Senate in 2024 after leaving the Democratic Party be independent. He currently works for a Washington-based law and lobbying firm.
