Kyrsten Sinema’s now-ended relationship with her onetime bodyguard took several unexpected turns.
Her original security team was blindsided by it and so was Matthew Ammel's ex-wife, according to the “homewrecker” lawsuit in North Carolina that first spotlighted the relationship for everyone else.
Ammel received a surprise of his own recently when Sinema described him as her ex-boyfriend to police after she complained that he tossed 22 paintings belonging to her into her pool.
Ammel faces possible prosecution over the incident, and the lawsuit is still in court, suggesting more details are yet to come.
For now, here’s what is known about the former U.S. senator’s relationship with the troubled former Green Beret.
How did Kyrsten Sinema meet her now ex-boyfriend?
Ammel formally retired from the Army
in 2022 and was struggling at that time, according to Heather Ammel’s "homewrecker" suit. Matthew Ammel pieced together various jobs and “began to rely heavily on marijuana and was emotionally unstable,” the suit said.
Matthew Ammel, 39, told The Arizona Republic he met Sinema, 50, through former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. At the time, Gabbard recently had left Congress, was about to switch her political party and was hosting her self-titled podcast.
By April 2022, Sinema put Matthew Ammel to work on her security team, which was headed by Vrindavan Bellord, Gabbard’s sister.
It was a financial boost for Ammel.
He received $121,000 in pay from Sinema’s campaign and affiliated political-action committee, records show. He also received another $6,800 in reimbursements for travel and security expenses.
When did Kyrsten Sinema and Matthew Ammel's relationship change?
By December 2022, Sinema made her own political switch, becoming an independent after years as a Democrat. At the time, her standing with Arizona Democrats had collapsed and she faced a looming primary challenge.
After the party change, Sinema’s once-flush campaign war chest began to erode, and she remained publicly silent about her plans to run for a second term.
By the fall of 2023, Bellord’s work for Sinema was ending. According to the suit, someone fitting Bellord’s description wanted to keep Matthew Ammel working with her even as she suspected Sinema was sexually involved with someone on her security detail.
“She encouraged Mr. Ammel to leave with her, but Mr. Ammel decided to stay due to the financial security of the job,” the suit said.
Matthew Ammel and Sinema each deny their relationship turned sexual until months later.
Senate campaign collapses as romantic relationship begins
On March 5, 2024, Sinema announced on social media that she would not run for reelection.
Within days of that, Sinema sent Matthew Ammel sexually charged text messages, according to the suit.
The combat veteran told Sinema he was considering starting a chant at a baseball game, saying “(expletive) the troops.” She responded that she would “(expletive) the hot ones.”
Matthew Ammel texted her about “having sex missionary style with the lights on” to which Sinema allegedly responded, “Boring!”
The suit claims that Sinema was “handsy” with Matthew Ammel at the Extra Innings Festival in Tempe in March 2024. Records show that event happened March 1 and 2, just before Sinema announced she was quitting Congress.
The lawsuit suggests Sinema and Matthew Ammel traveled to Napa, California, in May 2024. That trip is when both said in court that their relationship turned sexual.
“Around May or June 2024, Mr. Ammel stopped wearing his wedding ring,” the suit claims.
Sinema put Ammel on Senate staff as her Capitol Hill career wound down
In June 2024, Sinema placed Matthew Ammel on her Senate staff as a “defense and national security fellow,” which paid him nearly $42,000 in less than four months.
Heather Ammel confronted her then-husband and he said they were getting a divorce, the lawsuit said.
Heather Ammel said she responded to one of Sinema’s texts to Matthew Ammel: “Are you having an affair with my husband? You took a married man away from his family.” The lawsuit does not indicate what, if anything, Sinema replied.
For a time, the somewhat-secretive couple enjoyed Sinema’s penchant for pricey and exotic travel.
In December 2023, he served as security for Sinema at a U2 concert at the Sphere in Las Vegas. He took his then-wife with him as a gift to her, the lawsuit said. They met as a group and went to Cindy McCain’s suite. McCain had assumed her role as executive director of the World Food Programme months earlier.
According to the lawsuit, Sinema handed Heather Ammel a glass and asked, “Did you ever think you would be drinking Dom Perignon in Cindy McCain’s suite?”
Sinema took one of the Ammel children on a tour of the U.S. Capitol, and the whole Ammel family accompanied Sinema to a Taylor Swift concert in Miami in October 2024 that had been planned for months by then.
The Ammels formally split after he accompanied Sinema on a trip to Saudi Arabia.
After Congress, Sinema helped Ammel get a job at ASU, he says
In February 2025, less than two months after leaving the U.S. Senate, Sinema made a surprise appearance at the Arizona Legislature to press state lawmakers to approve public funding for clinical trials of ibogaine, a drug derived from the root of a West African plant that is considered promising in the treatment of traumatic brain injuries.
Matthew Ammel testified in support of the measure as well, saying it had been helpful for his own struggles.
“I think this is one of the main things that can alleviate the dependency on pharmaceuticals, for sure,” he said.
Sinema gave $3 million from her unspent campaign finance funds to Arizona State University in January 2025. In July 2025, Ammel became a half-time employee at ASU, where he worked as a fellow on “veterans issues.”
Matthew Ammel told The Republic that Sinema helped him land the ASU job. He said it involved working on a new degree program for Army combat arms soldiers and a regenerative farming certification.
In October 2025, Matthew Ammel appeared with Sinema at the Future Security Forum, an event ASU co-hosted last fall. He was on a roster of speakers that included Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, ASU President Michael Crow and retired Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
ASU paid Ammel $50,000 annually in the last school year and he is still employed there, though that is ending soon.
“Matt Ammel is currently winding down a fellowship with ASU which will end on October 31. That work has been to support a Department of War investment in ASU for training veterans in alternative farming practices and providing opportunities for employment to veterans,” an ASU spokesperson said in a Sept. 24 statement that came after Ammel’s arrest on suspicion of damaging Sinema’s property.
Matthew Ammel’s spiraling legal troubles
Not long after that forum, Ammel had a violent outburst back in North Carolina that led to felony assault charges stemming from a Nov. 20 attack on a medical worker he tried to strangle. The worker told Ammel he could not leave because of an involuntary commitment relating to erratic behavior and threats.
In a ruling allowing the homewrecker lawsuit to proceed, the judge in that case noted that Sinema bonded Ammel out of jail.
In May, Ammel pleaded guilty to both charges, records show. He remained free with a conditional discharge date set for May 2027.
He also said he felt Sinema, a lawyer and former social worker, had fared poorly in her recent bid to help him with his child custody dispute with his ex-wife. Sinema was closely involved in preparation for the hearing with his lawyer and his psychiatrist, Matthew Ammel told The Republic.
“I was angry, admittedly so,” he said. “When I tried to talk to her about it, she abandoned me.”
Sinema left him at her house and went to stay with friends and in hotels around Phoenix, Matthew Ammel said.
He said he trashed her home two weeks later.
For his part, Matthew Ammel told The Republic that he didn’t view Sinema as having used her status as a senator to end his marriage or control him.
“Kyrsten didn’t take advantage of me,” he said. “She was nice to me.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What to know about Kyrsten Sinema's stormy affair with ex-bodyguard
