Dan Bongino Is Married With Two Kids and Once Described His Family as "Broken"
Dan Bongino thinks politicians should speak like normal people, especially when it comes to their personal lives.
Published Feb. 24 2025, 12:11 p.m. ET
After long-time Trump loyalist Kash Patel was confirmed as FBI director in February 2025, President Donald Trump began building Kash's team. The president chose Secret Service agent turned right-wing political commentator Dan Bongino to be the next FBI deputy director. This was yet another unorthodox choice in a string of unusual decisions due to the fact that the deputy director is typically someone who is a career FBI agent.
When his 2015 run for Congress ended in a loss, Dan pivoted to media and a podcast originally titled The Renegade Republican (now named The Dan Bongino Show). On his podcast, Dan frequently drops controversial hot takes. Once upon a time, he ran three businesses with his wife but they have since shuttered, per the Naples Daily News. Here's what we know about his life as a married man.
Dan Bongino and his wife have been married for over 20 years.
In August 2024, Dan's wife Paula shared a post on Instagram celebrating the couple's 21st anniversary. "We are 21 years old today," she wrote. "What a beautiful life we’ve built. Happy Anniversary. I love you." This was capped off with a heart emoji. Most of her Instagram posts are about Dan, their children, or the family dog.
Back in April 2012, Dan was living in Maryland and running for the U.S. Senate, a race he eventually lost. The Crofton Patch did a profile on Dan in which we learned that he and Paula ran three home businesses together: an online martial arts apparel company, a website design company, and a security and risk-management consulting business. "When is the government going to get out of the way and let small businesses do for themselves?" he asked the outlet.
A few years later, Dan "set his political sights on the Southwest Florida congressional race after buying a house in Palm City on the east coast," per the Naples Daily News. While speaking with Dan ahead of his third congressional race, the outlet revealed that Paula is a web developer from Colombia, and their marriage hasn't been easy.
Dan has two kids and says that married life is hard.
Dan told the Naples Daily News that at one point he had a "broken family" and "marriage has been tough." He went on to say that it really bothers him when politicians can't speak like actual humans. "Listen, there’s nothing wrong with once in a while, when people go, 'So how’s your marriage?' saying, 'You know, it’s tough.'" Dan added that sometimes his two kids will come home in a pretty bad mood, which is hard on his wife. Sometimes they'll end up fighting about it, though he knows they shouldn't.
Other than occasionally posting about their kids on social media, Dan and Paula keep them out of the public eye. In January 2022, Dan celebrated his older daughter's 18th birthday with an Instagram post. "I'm so proud of my daughter Isabel for the woman she’s become," he wrote, adding that during her birthday weekend they "built memories for a lifetime."
A few months after Isabel's birthday party, Dan invited his younger daughter Amelia onto his now-defunct Fox News show. She did his nightly sign-off, which prompted a compliment from the proud dad.