Heather Ammel, the wife of Sinema's former bodyguard Matthew Ammel, has sued the ex-senator under North Carolina's alienation of affection law, accusing Sinema of "intentional and malicious interference" in the Ammels' marriage. The complaint seeks at least $25,000 in compensatory damages plus punitive damages, Fox News Digital reported.

North Carolina is one of just six states that still recognize alienation of affection claims, a legal cause of action rooted in the 19th century that allows a jilted spouse to sue the person they blame for destroying a marriage. And the facts alleged in this complaint read less like a dry legal filing and more like a soap opera set against a backdrop of Dom Pérignon, Taylor Swift concerts, encrypted messaging apps, and psychedelic drugs.

Signal messages and a wedding ring

The complaint lays out a timeline that begins with Matthew Ammel's role on Sinema's security detail and later on her Senate staff. The Ammels had lived together in North Carolina for roughly a decade. Heather Ammel's lawsuit alleges the couple had "a good and loving marriage" and "genuine love and affection" before Sinema entered the picture, the Washington Times reported.

The complaint describes suggestive messages Sinema allegedly sent to Matthew Ammel over Signal, the encrypted messaging platform, months before he and his wife officially split. One message from June 2024, cited in the filing, captures the tone:

"I keep waking up during my sleep and reaching over for your arms to hold me."

That message arrived around the same time Matthew Ammel allegedly stopped wearing his wedding ring.

The complaint also alleges Sinema offered to work on Ammel's back with a Theragun, suggested he bring MDMA on a work trip, and offered to "guide him through a psychedelic experience." These are the kinds of details that tend to stand out in a civil complaint.

For her part, Sinema acknowledged the relationship in a signed March 7 declaration filed as part of her motion to dismiss the case. She stated that the relationship "became romantic and intimate" at the end of May 2024 during a trip to Sonoma, California, and that the two were subsequently "physically intimate" in Phoenix, Aspen, and New York City, AP News reported.

That admission is notable. Sinema served in the Senate from 2019 to 2025. The affair began, by her own account, while she was still a sitting lawmaker and while Matthew Ammel was still married.

Champagne, concerts, and a confrontation

The lawsuit paints a picture of a relationship that played out across the country. In 2023, Heather Ammel traveled to Las Vegas with her husband and Sinema to attend a U2 concert. The three drank Dom Pérignon in Cindy McCain's suite, the complaint states.

Then in October 2024, copies of the affidavit reviewed by Fox News Digital showed the trio traveled to Miami for a Taylor Swift concert. The stated reason, according to the filing: "concern" for Ammel's children. The complaint does not elaborate on what exactly that concern entailed or why it required a Taylor Swift concert in Miami.

Also in October 2024, Heather Ammel confronted Sinema directly. She responded to one of Sinema's Signal messages with a pointed question, quoted in the complaint:

"Are you having an affair with my husband? You took a married man away from his family."

Matthew Ammel filed for divorce from his wife earlier this year.

Sinema's jurisdictional defense

Sinema's legal team has not disputed the affair. Instead, her lawyers moved to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds, arguing that the relationship took place "exclusively outside" North Carolina and that Sinema has no meaningful legal connection to the state.

Her court filing stated the argument plainly: "Because Defendant's conduct related to her romantic relationship with Mr. Ammel does not connect her to North Carolina in a meaningful way, jurisdiction over her in this action does not comport with due process," the Washington Examiner reported.

The lawsuit was originally filed in Moore County Superior Court in September. Sinema's lawyers subsequently moved it to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, Just The News reported. The judge presiding over the case ordered Heather Ammel to file a response to Sinema's motion to dismiss by mid-April.

Whether the jurisdictional argument succeeds may determine whether this case ever reaches a courtroom. But the factual admissions are already public. Sinema signed a declaration acknowledging the affair. The complaint's allegations, the Signal messages, the travel, the timeline, are now part of the court record.

A law with real teeth

North Carolina's alienation of affection statute may sound like an antique, but it has produced real and substantial verdicts. In 2010, a North Carolina jury awarded plaintiff Cynthia Shackelford a total of $9 million in compensatory and punitive damages in an alienation of affection case. In 2018, a Durham County judge ordered roughly $8.8 million in damages paid to Keith King, a BMX show owner who said another man had stolen his wife and destroyed his company.

Heather Ammel's complaint seeks $25,000 in damages, a modest figure compared to those precedents. But the complaint also seeks punitive damages, and the final number, if the case proceeds, could climb. The complaint accuses Sinema of acting with "deliberate" interference and of having "wrongfully and maliciously" deprived Heather Ammel of the "warmth, companionship" and love of her marriage.

The language in the filing is blunt. It describes Sinema's conduct as "willful and wanton" and alleges she "caused the destruction of that marital love and affection." Whether a court ultimately agrees is an open question. But the law exists for a reason, and the facts alleged here are exactly the kind of conduct it was designed to address.

What remains unanswered

Several questions hang over this case. The name of the presiding judge has not been publicly identified in available reporting. The full contents of Sinema's motion to dismiss and the affidavit remain only partially described. And the case number and precise filing date of the original complaint have not been disclosed in the reporting reviewed.

There is also the question of what role, exactly, Matthew Ammel played on Sinema's staff beyond his security duties. The complaint describes a progression, from security detail member, to staff member, to romantic partner, but the specifics of his staffing role and whether any Senate resources or official travel overlapped with the alleged affair remain unclear.

Sinema left the Senate in January 2025 after declining to seek reelection. She had switched her party affiliation to independent during her term, a move that alienated both Democrats and Republicans. Now she faces a different kind of accountability, not from voters, but from a woman in North Carolina who says Sinema took her husband and wrecked her family.

The law Heather Ammel invoked may be old. But the principle behind it is straightforward: actions have consequences, and the people who suffer them deserve a day in court. That idea never goes out of style.