Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema acknowledged in a court filing that she had a romantic relationship with a member of her security detail while she was a lawmaker, according to legal documents filed in a North Carolina federal case.
Sinema is contesting a lawsuit brought by the ex-wife of her former security guard, Heather Ammel, which seeks financial damages under a North Carolina “alienation of affection” claim. The lawsuit blames Sinema for a breakup in the marriage between Ammel and her husband, Matthew Ammel.
Heather Ammel contends that she and Matthew Ammel had “a good and loving marriage” and “genuine love and affection” before Sinema interfered and pursued him despite knowing he was married.
In a signed March 7 declaration attached to a motion filed this week, Sinema said her relationship with Matthew Ammel “became romantic and intimate” at the end of May 2024 and was “physically intimate” over the next several months in California, New York, Colorado, Arizona and Washington, D.C. The lawsuit said the Ammels separated in November 2024.
Sinema’s declaration rejected allegations by Heather Ammel that Sinema made phone calls and sent internet communications to Matthew Ammel while he was physically in North Carolina, at times in the presence of his wife and the couple’s children. Sinema’s attorney, Steven Epstein, argued in filings that Sinema had sent Matthew Ammel a message while he was in North Carolina only after he had already found a new place to live and “when the marriage was already over.”
Epstein also argued that Sinema’s “conduct related to her romantic relationship with Mr. Ammel does not connect her to North Carolina in a meaningful way,” adding that no jury would believe that the one message “had any bearing on the destruction of marital love and affection.”
The lawsuit says Sinema’s head of security hired Matthew Ammel after he retired from the Army in 2022. It alleges that in early 2024, Heather Ammel discovered messages between Sinema and her husband on the Signal messaging app that were of “romantic and lascivious natures,” and that later that summer Matthew Ammel stopped wearing his wedding ring.
The Ammel complaint further alleges that Sinema gave Matthew Ammel a job on her Senate staff while he continued to work as her bodyguard. The lawsuit also says the couple’s marriage ended after these events, though the filing in federal court frames the dispute as focused on jurisdiction and the connection to North Carolina.
The lawsuit was initially filed in September in North Carolina state court but moved to federal court in January, according to the court record described in the legal documents.
Sinema declined to seek Senate reelection in 2024 after a term in which she left the Democratic Party to become an independent. She now works for a Washington-based legal and lobbying firm.