Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema confirmed under oath that she carried on a sexual relationship with her bodyguard, an Army veteran named Matthew Ammel, across at least six cities over roughly five months while he was still married with three children.

The admission came not in a press conference or a tell-all interview but in a sworn declaration filed Thursday as part of a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Ammel's ex-wife, Heather. Sinema's legal strategy is straightforward: she doesn't deny the affair. She just argues that North Carolina is the wrong courtroom to litigate it.

As reported by People, Heather Ammel sued Sinema in September 2025 under North Carolina's alienation of affection law, which allows jilted spouses to take legal action against a third party for interfering in a marriage. She is seeking more than $75,000 in damages and accused Sinema of seducing her husband "willfully and intentionally" in conduct that "exceeded the bounds of a normal working relationship."

The Sworn Declaration

Sinema's declaration reads like an itinerary. In her own words:

"On May 27, 2024, while Mr. Ammel was on a security detail for me in Sonoma, CA, we were physically intimate for the first time."

She continued:

"Thereafter, we were physically intimate in mid-June in New York City, NY, in mid-July in Washington, DC, in late-August in Aspen, CO, in late September in Washington, DC, and in early-October in Phoenix, AZ."

Sonoma. Manhattan. The nation's capital. Aspen. Phoenix. The relationship traced a path through some of the most expensive zip codes in America, none of which happen to be in North Carolina. That geographic detail is the entire foundation of Sinema's defense.

Her attorney, Steven B. Epstein, filed the motion seeking dismissal "for lack of personal jurisdiction," arguing that Sinema and Ammel were never physically intimate in the state where Heather filed suit. The motion claims that "100%" of telephone and email communications between Sinema and Matthew occurred while he was outside North Carolina, traveling for "at least three different jobs" that kept him out of the state all but a few days each month.

Sinema's motion put a finer point on the jurisdiction argument:

"Plaintiff grounds her assertion of jurisdiction on romantic telephone calls and electronic messages she alleges Defendant initiated with Mr. Ammel while he was in North Carolina. The evidence, however, refutes her allegations."

A 14-Year Marriage Unraveled

Heather and Matthew Ammel were married for 14 years. According to the lawsuit, they separated in 2024, shortly after he joined Sinema's staff. Heather later filed for divorce in January.

Heather's lawsuit accused Sinema of engaging in "repeated episodes of sexual intercourse" with Matthew despite knowing he was married with three children. The lawsuit catalogued other examples of the relationship, including an allegation that Sinema suggested MDMA to Matthew. Sinema stated in her Thursday declaration that she has "no recollection" of any such suggestion.

Heather's attorney, Thomas Van Camp, did not immediately return a request for comment.

The Rules That Don't Apply

There is a detail buried in this story that deserves more attention than it will probably get. A 2018 House resolution bars members of Congress from having sexual relationships with their staff. There are no such restrictions in the Senate.

Read that again. The House decided in 2018 that sleeping with subordinates was a problem worth addressing. The Senate, that self-styled "world's greatest deliberative body," never bothered. Sinema, an independent who represented Arizona in the Senate for six years, operated in a chamber that simply has no rule on this.

Whether a Senate rule would have changed anything here is unknowable. But the gap itself says something about an institution that excels at making rules for other people while exempting itself from basic workplace standards that most private-sector employees take for granted.

Jurisdiction as Shield

Sinema's legal argument may well succeed on the merits. Jurisdiction questions are real, and courts take them seriously. If she and Matthew Ammel were never intimate in North Carolina, and if their communications never originated or terminated there, a judge may agree that Heather picked the wrong venue.

But notice what the defense doesn't contest. It doesn't deny the affair. It doesn't deny the timeline. It doesn't deny that this relationship began while Matthew Ammel was on a security detail, a professional context where the power dynamics are not subtle. Sinema was the principal. He was the man paid to stand between her and danger. The motion concedes the substance and fights only the geography.

North Carolina is one of a handful of states that still recognize alienation of affection as a cause of action. Critics call it an anachronism. But for Heather Ammel, it was the only legal tool available to hold someone accountable for what she says was the deliberate destruction of her family.

What Comes Next

If the motion to dismiss is granted, Heather Ammel would need to refile in a state where jurisdiction can be established, assuming one of the six cities on Sinema's own itinerary cooperates. If the motion fails, discovery begins, and a case that Sinema clearly wants resolved on procedural grounds becomes a full-blown trial about conduct.

Sinema left the Senate in January 2025 after declining to seek reelection. She rebranded herself during her final term as a maverick independent, a senator who answered to no party. That independence now extends to her personal life, laid out in clinical detail in a court filing she signed under penalty of perjury.

Three children lost their family's stability. A 14-year marriage ended. And the woman at the center of it all admits to everything except being in the wrong state.