Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is accused of having an affair with a member of her security detail and destroying the man’s marriage in a lawsuit filed by his ex-wife in Moore County, North Carolina.

Heather Ammel, a resident of Moore County and the ex-wife of Matthew Ammel, the member of Sinema’s security detail, sued Sinema for alienation of affection in Moore County Superior Court in September. Sinema represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate from 2019 to 2025 and now works for the Washington, D.C., law and lobbying firm Hogan Lovells.

Heather Ammel is seeking a minimum of $50,000 in damages, according to the lawsuit — $25,000 in compensatory damages and $25,000 in punitive damages. North Carolina is one of a few states where someone can sue the person with whom their spouse was having an affair, The News & Observer has reported.

Matthew Ammel began work as a security detail for Sinema in April 2022, while she was still a senator, the lawsuit states. In the fall of 2023, Sinema’s head of security resigned, citing concerns about Sinema’s sexual relations with several members of her security detail, the lawsuit alleges.

Ammel stayed on because of the financial security the job provided, the lawsuit states.

Heather Ammel found messages Matthew Ammel and Sinema exchanged on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, in January 2024, and the messages “exceeded the bounds of a normal working relationship and were of romantic and lascivious natures,” the lawsuit alleges.

By that time, Matthew Ammel had accompanied Sinema as her security detail on several trips, including one to Napa Valley, California, where the two were alone, the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit lists several concerts at which Ammel served as Sinema’s security detail — including Green Day and Taylor Swift — and instances when they stayed in rooms together after the event.

The lawsuit says Matthew Ammel told Heather Ammel several times that he was uncomfortable with how his and Sinema’s relationship appeared to the public. Matthew Ammel had Heather Ammel and Sinema meet at a U2 concert in December 2024 to “help establish boundaries,” the lawsuit states.

Still, the affair persisted, and Ammel stopped wearing his wedding ring around May or June 2024, the lawsuit says.

“Ammel stated it was best for ‘public optics’ so it wouldn’t look like (Sinema) was putting her hands on a married man when they were out at concerts and various other public events,” the lawsuit states.

Around the same time, in June 2024, Sinema hired Ammel as a Defense and National Security Fellow on her Senate staff, the lawsuit says.

Heather and Matthew Ammel separated on Nov. 1, 2024, the lawsuit states. Heather Ammel filed for divorce on Jan. 7, court records show.

Sinema filed a motion for the case to be moved from Moore County Superior Court to federal court on Jan. 13, court records show.

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