Former Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D) has acknowledged in a new court filing that she entered a romantic relationship with a former bodyguard while she was still serving in office.
The admission surfaced in a motion filed this week asking a North Carolina court to dismiss a lawsuit connected to the relationship.
The lawsuit was filed in September 2025 by the bodyguard’s ex-wife following the collapse of their marriage.
Court documents say the bodyguard, identified as Matthew Ammel, began working for Sinema before the alleged relationship developed.
In the motion to dismiss, Sinema confirmed that she and Ammel began a romantic relationship in May 2024.
That timeline places the start of the relationship roughly five months before Ammel separated from his wife.
However, Sinema’s legal team argues the case should be thrown out because the North Carolina court does not have jurisdiction over the matter.
According to the filing, the relationship occurred “exclusively outside of North Carolina.”
The motion states that nearly all communication between Sinema and Ammel took place while both individuals were outside the state.
It also argues that the only contact between the two while Ammel was physically in North Carolina occurred in October 2024, after he had already moved out of the home he shared with his wife.
The lawsuit itself paints a broader picture of how the relationship allegedly developed.
According to the complaint, the situation may have first intersected with Ammel’s marriage during a December 2023 trip to Las Vegas.
Court documents claim Sinema asked Ammel to serve as her security during the trip so she could attend a U2 concert at the Sphere venue.
The complaint states Ammel invited his wife along for the trip and described it as a gift.
After the concert, Ammel and his wife reportedly went out for drinks together.
The lawsuit alleges the situation changed shortly afterward.
According to court filings, the wife later discovered that Sinema and Ammel began communicating more frequently the following month using the encrypted messaging app Signal.
The complaint claims the messages appeared to go beyond a professional relationship.
Court documents describe the communications as having “exceeded the bounds of a normal working relationship.”
The lawsuit also alleges the two continued spending time together at various events, per Trending Politics.
Among the trips mentioned in the complaint are visits to the Innings Festival and travel to San Francisco.
The filing also references the pair attending a Taylor Swift concert and visiting Napa Valley in California.
In the lawsuit, Ammel’s ex-wife is seeking damages under North Carolina’s “alienation of affection” law.
That law allows spouses to sue a third party accused of interfering in a marriage and contributing to its collapse.
The complaint argues the relationship destroyed the couple’s “love and affection” through what it describes as wrongful conduct.
The ex-wife is also seeking punitive damages.
According to court filings, Sinema and Ammel remain in a romantic relationship today.
Records cited in the report show Ammel was originally hired through Sinema’s campaign account.
By the summer of 2024, while Sinema was still serving in the Senate, Ammel had been placed on her official Senate payroll as a staff member.
Sinema left Congress after the 2024 election and did not seek reelection following a turbulent term.
During her time in office, she broke with many Democrats and later left the party to become an independent.
She now works at the Washington-based legal and lobbying firm Hogan Lovells.
