'I cannot stay silent': Pete Hegseth’s mother condemns his 'abusive behavior' against women

29 November 2024

Fox News personality Pete Hegseth has a new problem complicating his goal of being confirmed to lead the United States military next year: His own mother.

The New York Times recently reported on new details that emerged from the aftermath of Hegseth's divorce from his former wife, Samantha, which took 10 months to finalize between 2017 and 2018. In 2016, Hegseth had an affair with Jennfier Rauchet, who was one of his coworkers at Fox News. The affair resulted in the two having a child out of wedlock. Hegseth married Rauchet in 2019.

Three months before his divorce from Samantha was finalized, Hegseth's mother, Penelope, wrote him a lengthy email in which she confronted him about how he treated his ex-wife and other women. She insisted that Samantha was "a good mother and a good person," and that Hegseth's arguments that his mother had taken the side of Samantha were "bunk."

"We are on the side of good and that is not you," she wrote, with the Times noted that she didn't clarified who included "we" besides herself.

"It’s time for someone (I wish it was a strong man) to stand up to your abusive behavior and call it out, especially against women,” Penelope Hegseth wrote. “We still love you, but we are broken by your behavior and lack of character.”

Hegseth described her son's behavior as "dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing [and] belittling." She added that if her message “damages our relationship further,” she added, “so be it.” And she told him to not bother replying, expecting him to "twist and abuse everything I say anyway."

The potential new defense secretary's alleged problems with women go beyond just his own family. In 2017, he was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a conservative conference. Democratic strategist and Fox News contributor Julie Roginsky reminded CNN viewers that Hegseth once wrote an article arguing that women can't claim rape if they were unconscious.

Click here to read the Times' report in full.

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