Former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema admitted to having an affair with her bodyguard in court filings stemming from a lawsuit alleging she is a homewrecker.
Sinema, a 49-year-old one-term Senator, said that she slept with her bodyguard, Matthew Ammel, 39, while he was married, as she filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit from his estranged wife.
She argued that the North Carolina court has no jurisdiction over the case as her relationship with her bodyguard was “exclusively outside of North Carolina.”
Sinema said she became “romantic and intimate” with her bodyguard in Sonoma, California, in May 2024, which was two months after she said she would not seek reelection to the Senate and about five months before Ammel’s eventual separation from his wife.
The former senator argued that while they were physically intimate in Arizona, California, New York, and Washington, D.C., they never slept together in North Carolina, so she shouldn’t be sued there.
The lawsuit from Ammel’s ex-wife alleges that Sinema originally asked Ammel to be her “security” while she attended a U2 concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas in December 2023.
At the time, Ammel brought his wife on the trip to Vegas, but afterwards, the wife says she began noticing Ammel and Sinema texting more frequently on the encrypted messaging app Signal. She said the messages “exceeded the bounds of a normal working relationship and were of romantic and lascivious natures.”
Ammel’s ex-wife said that Sinema sent Ammel provocative photos, including one of Sinema in just a towel. Sinema denied sending such images.
The lawsuit details one alleged instance in which Sinema allegedly became “handsy” with Ammel at the Innings Festival, a music festival in Tempe, Arizona.
The lawsuit also alleges that Sinema told Ammel to “bring MDMA drugs on a work trip” so she could “guide him through a psychedelic experience.”
The lawsuit claims that Sinema and Ammel attended a Taylor Swift concert together in California and later ventured off to wine country in Napa Valley.
Campaign finance records show that Sinema spent $1,610.75 on “gifts” at “The Official Store of Taylor Swift” in October 2024. She also spent $572.67 at Three Sticks Wines in Sonoma, California, which she labeled a “meeting expense.”
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema attends a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting on Oct. 6.
Kevin Dietsch/GettyAfter announcing she would not seek reelection, and even after she was out of office, she spent hundreds of thousands of dollars from her campaign account on security and luxury travel.
Between Oct. 1, 2024, and Dec. 31, 2024, Sinema’s campaign spent $241,000 in security-related expenses.
And between March 31 and June 30, 2025, months after she left office, she spent $616 in Aspen, Colorado, on an item labeled “security detail ski tickets.”
Campaign finance records also show that Sinema spent tens of thousands on overseas travel, including stays at a five-star hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the luxury Tokyo Edition Hotel in Japan, and the five-star Nobu Hotel London Portman Square.
The Daily Beast contacted Sinema for comment.
Sinema, a Democrat-turned-Independent, often enraged her caucus with her unpredictable moves, and her brief time in the Senate was riddled with controversy.
She oftentimes sank the Democratic Party’s initiatives, including their effort to raise the federal minimum wage to $15, in which she infamously put her thumb down in her vote, and nuked her party’s ability to do away with the filibuster.
She announced she would not seek reelection in 2024 after it became clear that her political career was flailing as now-Sen. Ruben Gallego launched a campaign against her.
Gallego went on to beat two-time MAGA loser candidate Kari Lake, a former TV host turned Trump superfan.
