Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth Appears to Have Cheated on His Wife a Lot
Hegseth had several affairs even after his first marriage.
Published Dec. 4 2024, 11:50 a.m. ET
Donald Trump's cabinet nominations have not all been smooth sailing. Matt Gaetz was already nominated for Attorney General and then stepped back, and now, Fox News personality Pete Hegseth's nomination to be Secretary of Defense also appears to be imperiled.
One of the reasons Hegseth's nomination might not succeed is related to a string of affairs he admitted to when he was married to his first wife. Here's what we know about those affairs and why he admitted to them.
Pete Hegseth apparently had five affairs while married to his first wife.
According to reporting in Vanity Fair, Hegseth told his first wife that he had had five affairs while the two of them were married. He also apparently called himself a “a f--ked up individual" during the confession. Hegseth and his first wife Meredith Schwarz were high school sweethearts in Minnesota, and the two of them dated long distance while he attended Princeton and she went to Barnard.
When he decided to serve a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005, though, the two were apart again, and they continued to grow apart as he pursued a career in politics while she worked in finance on Wall Street. In 2008, he told her that he wanted to live with her in Minnesota again, so Schwarz quit her finance job and moved back to Minnesota. Ultimately, though, he didn't follow through, and later in the year he returned to Minnesota to confess that he had been unfaithful.
“Pete said he no longer believed in God and family values,” a source said. “He claimed he no longer wanted to seek the limelight. He said, and this quote is as clear as day, ‘I’m a f--ked up individual.’”
Even after the confession, Schwarz still tried to make her marriage to Hegseth work, but that attempt didn't last long, as she discovered charges for hotels on her credit card that she hadn't made.
It was when Hegseth explained that he had had five affairs over the course of their marriage that Schwarz divorced him and cut off all contact. One of the women he had an affair with was Samantha Deering, who went on to become his second wife. While he was married to her, though, he had a baby with Fox News producer Jennifer Rauchet, whom he married and is still with in 2024.
Hegseth is also facing a variety of other allegations.
Plenty of political figures have affairs, even if it's far from the best thing to do. After all, he's been nominated to serve in Donald Trump's cabinet, and like Trump, he's been married three times.
Hegseth's nomination is also in jeopardy because of a variety of other serious allegations, including ones that he has an alcohol problem and that he has committed sexual assault.
Trump has reportedly considered nominating Ron DeSantis instead of Hegseth. At least for now, though, Hegseth is trying to weather the storm that has come with these allegations.
