Filing came week after Daily Mail images of husband in fake breasts
Kristi Noem, the former South Dakota governor who served as President Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary before being fired in March, has filed for divorce from her husband Bryon Noem after 34 years of marriage. Court records filed this week in Hamlin County, South Dakota, cite “irreconcilable differences” in a divorce claim listed as “for settlement purposes only.”
The divorce petition was signed by Noem’s lawyer, Michael Sabers, on April 6, the New York Times reported, but was not filed in court until late September. Noem, 54, and Bryon Noem, 56, married in 1992 and have three adult children.
The April 6 signing came about a week after the Daily Mail published photographs of Bryon Noem wearing inflated fake breasts under a spandex shirt. At the time, Kristi Noem issued a statement saying she was “devastated” by the images and that “the family have been blindsided by this.”
The state of the Noems’ marriage had already been subject of speculation amid rumors that Kristi Noem was in a relationship with her aide at the department, Corey Lewandowski. During a March 4 hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a Democratic member of Congress asked Noem under oath whether she had sexual relations with Lewandowski.
Noem, accompanied to the hearing by her husband, dismissed the question as “tabloid garbage” but did not directly deny the relationship. She was fired the following day.
Reports indicated Trump was angered by her answers about a taxpayer-funded publicity campaign that had promoted Noem’s image. Noem told the committee that Trump had signed off on the spending.
Noem was replaced by Markwayne Mullin as homeland security secretary. Her tenure had been marked by controversy, including the fatal shooting of two Minneapolis protesters by federal officers during an immigration enforcement surge.
Noem characterized the protesters, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, as “domestic terrorists,” drawing intense criticism.