Sinema wants therapy records for the woman whose husband she seduced

First, former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema pursued and slept with her bodyguard, allegedly breaking up the man’s marriage. Now she wants to see what the man’s ex-wife is telling her therapist.

In January, Heather Ammel filed what’s known as a “homewrecker” lawsuit against Sinema, the Democratic-turned-Independent ex-Arizona senator. The suit, which was filed in a North Carolina court but has since been moved to federal court, is officially known as an “alienation of affection” complaint.

According to the complaint, Sinema knowingly seduced Ammel’s husband, Matthew Ammel, when he worked security for Sinema. The affair allegedly shattered the couple’s 14-year marriage and resulted in their separation in November 2024. The couple, which shares three children, officially divorced in March.

Sinema has admitted to being in a sexual relationship with Ammel, though she’s fighting the suit from his ex-wife. She is arguing that the Ammels were already on the rocks when the affair began, and that the affair never took place in North Carolina while they were together.

In filings, Sinema has stated that she first became “aware” of Matthew Ammel in 2022 when he joined her security team, but she wasn’t “physically intimate” with him until late May 2024. Ammel was serving on her security detail during a trip to Sonoma, California, when “we were physically intimate for the first time,” according to a declaration Sinema filed in March. She also cited other locations where the affair partners continued to be “physically intimate” from May to October 2024, when he supposedly split from his wife. These locations include New York City; Washington, D.C.; Aspen, Colorado; and Phoenix.

In October 2024, Sinema hosted the Ammels and their children as her guests at a Taylor Swift concert in Miami, her filing says. But Sinema said it was “very clear” to her around that time that his marriage was over and that he was planning to move to a new apartment in North Carolina. In his own declaration filed with the court, Matthew Ammel said he went on the Miami trip because “we did not want to disappoint our children.”

Sinema has claimed that the affair never took place in North Carolina, either in person or through texts, while Ammel was still in an active relationship with his wife. For that reason, Sinema argues that North Carolina’s “homewrecker” law doesn’t apply. Heather Ammel disputes this and alleges that Sinema did travel to North Carolina on occasion to be with her husband.

That argument is now before federal Judge David Bragdon, who will hear both sides on the jurisdictional question in mid-August. To prepare for those arguments, Bragdon allowed limited discovery by both parties. Filings show that Sinema’s attorney, Steven Epstein, used that process to subpoena Heather Ammel’s therapist for all of documents related to her from 2024, including the dates of therapy sessions, notes, intake forms, invoices and all communications.

Heather Ammel fought that move. Her attorney, Thomas Van Camp, initially wrote to Epstein requesting that the subpoena be withdrawn and then filed a motion with the court to block it. He argues that Sinema’s request was “completely unrelated to the issue of Defendant’s contacts with North Carolina” and was outside the scope of the court’s discovery order. 

Epstein denied Camp’s request to withdraw the subpoena. He argued that Sinema has a “right to seek third-party evidence contradicting” Ammel’s claims that she had an active marriage with he husband “that wasn’t in the process of ending” when Sinema’s “inadvertent contacts occurred,” according to an email from Epstein that Camp filed with the court. 

In a declaration filed with the court, Matthew Ammel alleges that his relationship with his now-ex-wife officially ended in October 2024 — five months after his affair with Sinema began. That same month, the couple had an appointment with her therapist, Chad Brown, with whom they discussed the “process of separating.”