Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema shared intimate details about her alleged affair with her married former bodyguard, Matthew Ammel.
“We were staying at an Airbnb in Napa, California,” Sinema, 50, revealed during a July 31 deposition, per People. “We were outside. Matt kissed me. We went inside and had sex.”
Sinema was deposed in July as part of a lawsuit filed by Matthew’s ex-wife, Heather Ammel, under North Carolina’s alienation of affection law — which states that someone can be sued for intentionally destroying a marriage. Heather is seeking $75,000 in damages.
The former Arizona senator has tried to dismiss the suit, arguing that the alleged affair did not actually take place in North Carolina, where the Ammels lived.
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As part of July’s deposition, Sinema acknowledged under oath that she was first intimate with Matthew in Napa, California, around Memorial Day in 2024.
She said that they later met up one month later in New York City while she was in town for a wedding. While they had separate hotel rooms, Sinema recalled that she was “intimate” with Matthew in her room.
Per the former senator, they met on more occasions between July and October 2024 at her Washington, D.C., apartment and at her home in Phoenix, and they also took a trip to Aspen.
During the deposition, she was shown a text message she allegedly wrote to Matthew in October 2024, which read, “Putting my hand on my heart. I’ll see you soon. I miss you.”
The opposing attorney asked Sinema whether she could understand why “a wife reading this might get concerned about who is sending her husband that kind of message.”
“Yes,” she replied.
Us had reached out to Sinema for comment.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Alex Wong/Getty Images
Sinema first conceded she’d had an affair with her married bodyguard in March as part of a motion to have Heather’s lawsuit thrown out. The politician has acknowledged that she knew Matthew was married when they were seeing each other.
Heather filed her lawsuit last year, arguing that Sinema intentionally interfered in “a good and loving marriage” where there was “genuine love and affection,” per CBS News. Her lawsuit hinges on her contention that Sinema made calls and sent texts to Matthew while she knew he was in North Carolina with his wife and their children.
Sinema’s attorneys denied Heather’s accusation, insisting she only communicated with Matthew while he was in North Carolina “when the marriage was already over.”
“[Sinema’s] conduct related to her romantic relationship with Mr. Ammel does not connect her to North Carolina in a meaningful way,” Sinema’s attorney Steven Epstein wrote in March.
Sinema reportedly hired Matthew as her head of security after he retired from the U.S. Army in 2022. Two years later, Heather allegedly found messages of a “romantic and lascivious nature” between Sinema and Matthew on the Signal app.
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An evidentiary hearing in the case will take place on Wednesday, August 19. (The suit was initially filed in North Carolina state court but has since moved to federal court.)
From 2013 to 2019, Sinema represented Arizona’s 9th district in the House of Representatives before serving one term in the U.S. Senate, from 2019 to 2025. Sinema caused controversy during her single Senate term by leaving the Democratic Party to become an Independent in December 2022.
Sinema announced in March 2024 that she would not run for re-election. (Democrat Ruben Gallego won Sinema’s vacant Senate seat by defeating Donald Trump ally Kari Lake in the November 2024 election.)
“Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year,” she said at the time.
Sinema now works as a senior adviser for Washington, D.C., lobbying firm Hogan Lovells Cadwalader.
