An affair with a member of her security detail that began in either Sonoma or Napa County in 2024 has led to a lawsuit against former Senator Kyrsten Sinema from the security guard's ex-wife, which Sinema is trying to get thrown out.

Former Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who became persona non grata among Democrats during her one-term tenure in the Senate for leveraging her swing-vote status for greater power and then becoming an independent, is now facing a lawsuit from the ex-wife of a member of her security detail. As the Daily Beast reported over the weekend, Sinema has admitted to the affair with former security guard Matthew Ammel, which appears to have been conducted over multiple months in 2024.

The Assembly, a North Carolina-based publication, first reported on the lawsuit in January, which was filed by Heather Ammel under North Carolina's antiquated "alienation of affection" law. The law, nicknamed the "homewrecker law," allows for a spouse to sue a third party who they believe played a role in wrongfully causing the dissolution of their marriage.

Such laws, which derive from English common law of the 18th and 19th centuries, have largely been abolished in most states.

Per the Chronicle, Sinema submitted a declaration in the case that placed the first romantic encounter with Matthew Ammel on Memorial Day Weekend 2024 in Sonoma County. But in a July 31 deposition, Sinema reportedly said, "We were staying at an Airbnb in Napa, California. We were outside. Matt kissed me. We went inside and had sex." (We'll have to assume here that one or the other location is incorrect, and it's likely that she referred to "Napa" in the deposition the way many people do as a metonym for Wine Country, when she meant to say Sonoma, though this is not clear.)

Sinema reportedly began a texting rapport with Ammel that dates back possibly to late 2023 or early 2024. In an exchange during President's Biden's final State of the Union address in January 2024, Sinema reportedly messaged Ammel saying "she didn’t need to listen to some old man, President Biden, talk about legislation that she wrote," according to the lawsuit. And when Ammel joked he was going to start a "fuck the troops" chant, Sinema responded that she would "fuck the hot ones."

According to the suit, Sinema volunteered to help Ammel deal with some mental health issues, texting that he should get some MDMA so she could lead him through a "psychedelic experience" as a means of therapy.

It's unclear what the occasion was for the Wine Country trip, but Sinema confirmed in her deposition that she and Ammel had a second sexual encounter in June 2024 while she was attending the wedding of CNN anchor Jessica Dean in New York City, as the Daily Beast reports. And they had a third encounter at Sinema's Washington, DC apartment in mid-July, she said.

The affair continued on a trip to Aspen, Colorado that August, and Ammel himself reportedly confirmed another sexual encounter in DC in late September. The pair also reportedly had sex at Sinema's home in Phoenix in October 2024.

Sordidly, Sinema reportedly accompanied the Ammels and their children to a Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert that October, before Matthew Ammel initiated the separation with his wife in November.

Sinema, who has been working as a lobbyist since leaving the Senate in early 2025, has reportedly been continuing to see Matthew Ammel romantically, as the Assembly reported in January, traveling to North Carolina to visit him there.

Sinema is now trying to get the North Carolina suit tossed in federal court, arguing that the affair was initiated and conducted outside the state, and that North Carolina has no personal jurisdiction over her. There will reportedly be an evidentiary hearing in the federal case in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Wednesday. It will then be up to US District Judge David A. Bragdon whether the jurisdiction argument is valid, and whether the North Carolina case may proceed.

Heather Ammel is seeking unspecified financial damages from Sinema if she is found liable for "wrongful and malicious conduct."

As The Assembly notes, "While alienation of affection laws were once common throughout the United States, only five other states [besides North Carolina] still have them on the books." Those states are Hawaii, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Utah.

Last fall, a TikTok influencer named Brenay Kennard was sued and filed liable under the law in North Carolina and ordered to pay $1.75 million in damages after seducing and having an affair with her manager, Tim Montague.

In other news, Sinema is also facing a legal complaint from the Campaign Legal Center, filed in February, that alleges that she violated federal campaign finance laws by using around $700,000 of unspent campaign funds for personal use, spending funds on luxury trips, expensive meals, exclusive event tickets, and more, since leaving office last year.

Related: Former Newsom Mayoral Aide Ruby Rippey Breaks Silence on Scandalous 2005 Affair

Top image: Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) arrives at the U.S. Capitol ahead of votes on December 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nominees for his incoming administration continue to meet with senators on Capitol Hill, weeks before his inauguration. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)