Penelope Hegseth, mother of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, wrote a heated email calling him an “abuser of women” in the midst of his 2018 divorce proceedings, according to The New York Times — a revelation that comes as Hegseth gears up for confirmation hearings to become President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of defense.
The Times said the Penelope Hegseth copied Samantha Hegseth, Pete’s second wife, on the message at the time it was sent. The outlet received a copy from another person with ties to the family.
In the message, Penelope Hegseth wrote that she had to speak up “after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today.”
“You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego,” she wrote. “You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”
Around 400 words of the message were published in the Times, with one sentence redacted for privacy reasons.
Penelope Hegseth told the Times that she quickly regretted the email, and sent a follow-up to apologize to her son. She told the paper that publishing the email was “disgusting,” a sentiment that was echoed by Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, who called it “despicable.”
Pete Hegseth has been married three times and has fielded numerous accusations of infidelity; he and Samantha share three sons between them. He married a Fox News colleague, Jennifer Rauchet, in 2019, after she had a child by him in 2017.
“For you to try to label [Samantha] as ‘unstable’ for your own advantage is despicable and abusive. Is there any sense of decency left in you?” Hegseth’s mother asked in 2018.
“I don’t want to debate with you. You twist and abuse everything I say anyway. But… On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote.
Pete Hegseth’s nomination this month, despite his lack of senior military leadership experience — he served in the Army National Guard in the rank of major — shocked Washington. And a 2017 sexual assault allegation revealed in the lead-up to his confirmation hearings may cast further doubt on his fitness for office.
A woman told police that she believed Hegseth drugged and raped her at a Republican women’s conference in Monterey, California, although no charges were ever filed and he denies that the sexual encounter was nonconsensual.
Hegseth paid the woman a settlement to keep quiet about the allegation out of fear for his Fox News gig, his lawyer said, per the Times.
After Trump said he wanted Hegseth to lead the entire U.S. military, Fox News contributor Leslie Marshall spoke up to criticize her colleague’s history of alleged misconduct, noting that infidelity is a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
“You can’t lead an entire organization and all these people if you can’t lead by example,” Marshall said.
Democracy In The Balance
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A handful of Republican senators have expressed concerns with Hegseth’s character.
“It’s a pretty big problem, given that we have, you know, we have a sexual assault problem in our military,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said earlier this month.