By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-08-19 15:01:52 | Updated at 2026-08-19 15:13:35
16 minutes ago
The timeline, dates, and tawdry details of former US Senator Kyrsten Sinema's affair with her former bodyguard and staffer is taking center stage in a North Carolina court on Wednesday morning.
A federal judge is set to weigh next steps in the so-called 'homewrecker' lawsuit that has dominated headlines for months.
The evidentiary hearing is expected to feature plenty of new steamy details regarding Sinema’s romantic dalliances with Matthew Ammel, a US army veteran and father who had been living in North Carolina with his children and wife for more than a decade prior to the affair.
The wife, Heather Ammel, is suing Sinema for tens of thousands of dollars in damages for 'intentionally' and 'maliciously' destroying her marriage of more than a decade under a rare 19th century law still on the books in just a handful of US states.
All three of them will present testimony to the court Wednesday, either in person or via sworn deposition, and a parade of witnesses will be called to the stand for testimony about the longtime affair.
Details of the relationship continue to be revealed by way of lengthy court filings and sworn depositions submitted up to the buzzer before Wednesday’s hearing kicked off.
In them, Heather detailed her years-long suspicions about her husband's new boss, then-Senator Sinema.
She told the court that Sinema's 'flirty' behavior toward Matthew had been dismissed for months, despite what she described as solo trips to Napa taken more than a year before the affair allegedly began, a champagne-fueled celebration in Colorado where they were photographed in swimsuits under a waterfall, and other unsettling encounters.
Kyrsten Sinema is seen in this photo, shared to her personal social media account, with former president Joe Biden
The Democratic-turned-independent politician was sued for 'alienation of affection' by the ex-wife of her former bodyguard
Senator Sinema, clad in a blue sequined skirt, is seen speaking to Senator Rob Portman of Ohio ahead of a bipartisan bill to protect same sex and interracial marriage
By the summer of 2024, Matthew had stopped sharing his location with Heather. She told the court she was bracing for the worst.
By October, those fears were confirmed by a late-night Signal message she intercepted on her husband's phone.
'I miss you,' Sinema wrote to Matthew. 'Putting my hand on your heart. I'll see you soon. I miss you.'
The message landed with Heather instead, sending her into 'complete panic mode' and a 'complete meltdown at 2 am in utter shock,' she testified.
Heather isn't the only one sharing new details under oath. In a fresh deposition, Sinema testified it was Matthew, then on her payroll, who first initiated romantic contact, kissing her unexpectedly around 1 or 2am in the backyard of a Napa, California, Airbnb on Memorial Day Weekend 2024.
They went to his room and had sex for the first time. It would not be the last.
Sinema is seen applauding during then-President Joe Biden's State of the Union address in 2023 at the US Capitol
Former senator Kyrsten Sinema watches Matthew Ammel, her former bodyguard, with whom she had an affair, testify before the Arizona legislature in February 2024. They first became intimate in May of that year
The following month, the pair traveled to Manhattan for the wedding of CNN host Jessica Dean and Blackstone managing director Alex Katz, a glitzy ceremony officiated by CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins.
From there, they allegedly continued sexual liaisons across multiple US cities, including Washington DC, Aspen and Phoenix.
Whether the affair crossed into North Carolina is now a pivotal question.
The federal judge is expected to hear arguments from both sides over the location of certain messages Sinema sent to Ammel, which will determine whether her motion to dismiss the lawsuit succeeds, and whether Heather can proceed under a rare 19th-century law still on the books in a handful of states.
Should the case reach trial, Heather stands to profit handsomely.
Tar Heel State juries have been famously sympathetic in tortious interference cases, awarding compensatory and punitive damages well into the millions.
