Deposition testimony from former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema details a months-long sexual relationship with her married security guard, and now his ex-wife is suing her under North Carolina's alienation-of-affection law.
Sinema, the Arizona Democrat turned independent who left office at the beginning of 2025, acknowledged under oath that she had sex with Matthew Ammel at least five times between Memorial Day and October 2024, a period when she still held her Senate seat and Ammel was married with three children. The testimony came in a July 31 deposition taken at a law office in Raleigh, North Carolina, Fox News Digital reported.
Heather Ammel, Matthew Ammel's ex-wife, filed the civil suit alleging Sinema's relationship with her then-husband destroyed their 14-year marriage. North Carolina is one of a handful of states that still allows alienation-of-affection claims, sometimes called the "homewrecker" law, which let a spouse sue a third party for conduct that allegedly broke up the marriage.
Sinema's deposition mapped out the relationship in blunt terms. She testified that the first encounter happened around Memorial Day 2024 at an Airbnb in Napa, California, where she was staying with friends Penny and Grant Croissant and another member of her security detail.
In her own words, as Breitbart reported:
"We were staying at an Airbnb in Napa, California. We were outside. Matt kissed me. We went inside and had sex."
A second encounter followed in June 2024 in New York City, where Sinema attended the wedding of CNN anchor Jessica Dean. Sinema testified that she and Ammel had separate hotel rooms but were "intimate" in her room during the trip.
By mid-July, the pattern had moved to Washington. Sinema said she and Ammel had sex at her D.C. apartment after taking a red-eye flight from the West Coast. In mid-August, they traveled together to Aspen, Colorado, for what Sinema described as a "fundraising trip," and had sex there as well.
A late-September encounter in Washington, D.C., added a wrinkle: Matthew Ammel confirmed it in his own deposition, but Sinema said she could not recall it. The final acknowledged encounter took place in October 2024 at Sinema's house in Phoenix, Arizona.
Throughout all of it, Sinema acknowledged she knew Ammel had three children and was married.
Court filings included text messages between Sinema and Matthew Ammel that Heather Ammel discovered on her husband's phone. One message from Sinema read: "Putting my hand on your heart. I'll see you soon. I miss you." A lawyer asked Sinema during the deposition whether she had sent it.
Her answer: "Yes."
The lawyer pressed the point, asking whether Sinema understood that "a wife reading this might get concerned about who is sending her husband that kind of message referring to putting his, her hand on his heart." Sinema's response to that question was not detailed in the filing beyond her earlier confirmation.
Heather Ammel read aloud another message Sinema had sent to her husband during her own deposition testimony:
"I hope your day was okay. Thinking of you. I am with you. I keep waking up during my sleep and reaching over for your arms to hold me."
The messages and the deposition testimony together lay out a relationship that was not a single lapse in judgment but a sustained, cross-country affair conducted while Sinema served in the United States Senate. The pattern of personal scandals among prominent Democratic figures has become a recurring theme, from Andrew Gillum's ongoing legal troubles to ethics questions surrounding current and former officeholders.
Heather Ammel's deposition testimony was pointed. She recalled discovering the affair when her husband came home "severely intoxicated" while the family was staying at her parents' house. In a June 2024 text message to Matthew Ammel, she described Sinema as "insidious" and "a woman who is willing to break up a family."
Yet Heather Ammel did not reserve all her anger for Sinema. She also testified that her husband is an "established liar and manipulator" and said she believed he was "actively manipulating" both her and Sinema. That characterization adds a complicated layer to a lawsuit built on the claim that Sinema alone wrecked the marriage.
The Ammels separated on November 1, 2024. Their divorce was finalized in March 2026, ending a marriage that Just The News reported had lasted 14 years.
Sinema's attorneys moved the case from North Carolina state court to federal court and are now seeking dismissal. Their argument rests on two grounds: that Sinema's relationship with Matthew Ammel occurred entirely outside North Carolina, and that the federal court lacks personal jurisdiction over her.
An evidentiary hearing on the matter is scheduled for August 19. The court has not yet ruled on the motion to dismiss.
Sinema also pushed back on at least one piece of evidence during her deposition. When asked about a photo of herself in a towel that she allegedly sent to Matthew Ammel, she said she did not specifically recall it. As for cupping marks visible in the image, she offered a brisk explanation:
"I'm an endurance athlete. So a photograph of me with cupping marks is about sports."
Whether a federal judge finds that explanation, or the jurisdictional argument, persuasive will become clearer after the August 19 hearing. But the deposition record is already public, and it is detailed.
Sinema built her Senate brand on independence, breaking with Democrats on key votes and eventually leaving the party altogether. She cultivated an image as a maverick willing to defy partisan expectations. None of that insulated her from the oldest kind of political exposure: a private life that contradicts a public persona.
North Carolina's alienation-of-affection statute is an unusual legal tool, but the facts it has surfaced here are straightforward. A sitting U.S. senator carried on a months-long affair with a married employee across five states, while his wife and three children waited at home. The question now before the court is jurisdictional. The question for the public is simpler, and it answers itself.
Democrats have shown little appetite for holding their own accountable when personal conduct collides with public trust, a pattern visible in how party leaders have dismissed misconduct allegations against their candidates and rallied around figures facing serious scrutiny. The growing list of Democratic scandals under federal or legal examination keeps getting longer, even as the party's leadership looks the other way.
Sinema may beat the lawsuit on a technicality. But sworn testimony has a way of outlasting legal maneuvers, and voters tend to remember the facts long after the motions are forgotten.