{"id":37641,"date":"2026-09-29T16:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=37641"},"modified":"2026-09-29T16:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T15:36:27","slug":"kyrsten-sinema-faces-lawsuit-over-affair-with-married-bodyguard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/29\/kyrsten-sinema-faces-lawsuit-over-affair-with-married-bodyguard\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyrsten Sinema Faces Lawsuit Over Affair with Married Bodyguard"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is facing a civil lawsuit brought by the former wife of a member of her security detail, with a federal judge allowing the case to proceed under North Carolina\u2019s alienation of affection law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heather Ammel, the former wife of Matthew Ammel, alleges that Sinema knowingly pursued a romantic relationship with her husband while the couple were still married. She claims the relationship contributed to the breakdown of their marriage and is seeking more than 75,000 dollars in damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinema has acknowledged in court filings that she and Matthew Ammel became romantically and physically involved while she was still serving in the Senate. She said their relationship became intimate in May 2024 during a trip to California and continued during encounters in other states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kyrsten Sinema leaves the Senate chamber at the U.S. Capitol<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The dispute has drawn attention because Ammel had worked as part of Sinema\u2019s security detail before later serving as a national security fellow in her Senate office. Heather Ammel alleges that Sinema pursued him despite knowing he was married and had children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those allegations remain part of a civil lawsuit and have not been established at trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the complaint, Heather Ammel discovered messages exchanged between her husband and Sinema on the encrypted messaging service Signal in early 2024. The lawsuit describes some of the communications as romantic or sexual and alleges they went beyond an ordinary professional relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinema has disputed the legal claims against her. She argued that North Carolina courts lacked jurisdiction because she did not live in the state and because the physical encounters did not take place there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A federal judge rejected that jurisdictional argument, pointing to messages Sinema allegedly sent to Matthew Ammel while he was in North Carolina. The ruling allows the lawsuit to continue but does not determine whether Sinema is ultimately liable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A federal courthouse in North Carolina.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

North Carolina remains one of a small number of states that recognize alienation of affection claims. The law allows a spouse, in certain circumstances, to seek damages from a third party accused of interfering with a marriage and causing the loss of marital affection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heather Ammel maintains that she and her husband had a loving marriage before Sinema became involved. Court records state that the couple later separated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversy has attracted wider public attention because the relationship began while Sinema was serving in the U.S. Senate. She represented Arizona before leaving office in early 2025 after previously changing her party registration from Democrat to independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The case is expected to focus on whether the legal requirements for an alienation of affection claim can be proven, including the condition of the marriage before the alleged relationship, Sinema\u2019s knowledge of the marriage and whether her conduct legally contributed to its breakdown. The court has not yet made a final determination on those questions, and the lawsuit remains ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is facing a civil lawsuit brought by the former wife of a member of her security detail, with a federal judge allowing the case to proceed under North Carolina\u2019s alienation of affection law. Heather Ammel, the former wife of Matthew Ammel, alleges that Sinema knowingly pursued a romantic relationship with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":37642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,458,3],"tags":[24203,24201,24207,24204,24211,24206,24205,24208,24202,24209,3641,24210,640,20960],"class_list":["post-37641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-legal","category-naija-news","tag-alienation-of-affection","tag-arizona-politics","tag-bodyguard","tag-civil-lawsuit","tag-court-case","tag-heather-ammel","tag-kyrsten-sinema","tag-kyrsten-sinema-lawsuit","tag-matthew-ammel","tag-north-carolina-lawsuit","tag-political-news","tag-senate-security","tag-u-s-politics","tag-u-s-senate"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/arizonas-independent-senator-kyrsten-sinema-to-skip-2024-reelection-race-paving-way-for-gallego-lake-showdown-1.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37645,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37641\/revisions\/37645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}