Kristi Noem Files for Divorce from Husband Bryon Noem After 34 Years of Marriage
Kristi Noem Files for Divorce from Husband Bryon Noem After 34 Years of Marriage
Brooke Migdon, Joseph KonigTue, September 29, 2026 at 5:49 PM UTC
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Kristi and Bryon Noem arrive at a Senate Judiciary hearing on March 3, 2026Credit: Andrew Harnik/Getty -
Kristi Noem filed for divorce from her husband, Bryon Noem, after 34 years of marriage, according to court records in their home state of South Dakota
The former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary filed the divorce paperwork on Sept. 28 in South Dakota’s Hamlin County, where the high school sweethearts hailed from
The divorce comes months after Kristi was pushed out of her position atop DHS, and reports that Bryon participated in online fetish forums
Kristi Noem filed for divorce from her husband, Bryon Noem, after 34 years of marriage, according to court records in their home state of South Dakota.
The former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary filed the divorce paperwork on Monday, Sept. 28, in South Dakota’s Hamlin County, where the high school sweethearts resided during her tenure as the state’s governor and when she later served in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet.
The divorce comes months after Kristi, 54, was pushed out of her position atop DHS, and reports that Bryon, 56, participated in online fetish forums.
Kristi cited irreconcilable differences as the reason for the divorce, Dakota News Now reported.
Attorneys for the Noems did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
The couple married in 1992 and share three grown children: daughters Kassidy and Kennedy, and son Booker. They are also grandparents to Kassidy and Kennedy’s children.
Shortly after Kristi was fired by the president in March and reassigned to lead the Western Hemisphere security initiative known as Shield of the Americas, The Daily Mail published photos and messages that purportedly showed Bryon participating in online fetish forums.
The former first gentleman of South Dakota allegedly spent upward of $25,000 in “bimbofication” chatrooms, a role-playing kink centered on hyper-femininity and extreme body modification.
Bryon Noem (L) looks on as Kristi Noem (R) testifies before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on May 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.Credit: ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty
Kristi’s mother, Corinne Arnold, told The Daily Mail in July that Kristi and Bryon were divorcing, but papers were not filed until this week.
“I feel bad, sick that they’re getting a divorce, but what else can you do?” Arnold said at the time.
In March, TheDaily Mail published photographs that Bryon had taken of himself wearing bright pink spandex and oversized fake breasts made of balloons. In messages to fetish performers, Bryon allegedly wrote that he loves “huge, huge ridiculous boobs,” and allegedly alluded to challenges in his marriage with Kristi.
A representative for Kristi, now Trump’s special envoy for a multinational security initiative, told The New York Post in March that she had been “blindsided” by the report. “Ms. Noem is devastated,” the statement said.
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The son of farmers, Bryon grew up in Hamlin County, S.D., and attended Hamlin High School, where he met Kristi Arnold, who would eventually become governor.
After graduating from Northern State University, Bryon coached basketball and worked on his family’s farm. Later, he pivoted to sales, eventually owning and operating his own crop insurance agency near his and Kristi’s home in Castlewood, S.D., according to the National Governors Association.
Kristi worked as a rancher and farmer before her political career kicked off in 2006, when she won a South Dakota House seat. She won the Republican primary for the state’s at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, ultimately defeating incumbent Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a Democrat, in the general election.
Kristi Noem and Bryon NoemCredit: Rebecca Blackwell / POOL / AFP via Getty; Heather Diehl/Getty
Voters sent Kristi back to Congress three more times before she announced in 2016 that she would run for governor, winning South Dakota’s gubernatorial election in 2019 and again in 2022. In November 2024, Trump said he had selected Kristi to lead the Department of Homeland Security in his second administration.
In March, during a tense House hearing during which lawmakers questioned her ability to lead the department and its aggressive immigration enforcement actions, Kristi was asked outright about a long-rumored affair between her and Trump ally Corey Lewandowski, whom she had made an unpaid adviser at DHS.
Both she and Lewandowski, who is also married with children, have denied reports of an extramarital romantic relationship.
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Noem twice refused to say under oath whether she had had a sexual relationship with Lewandowski, calling the questions about their relationship “tabloid garbage.”
In its March report on Bryon’s private messages and photos to online models, The Daily Mail spoke to three women who said they had interacted with Bryon in the “bimbofication” chatrooms. According to one of the women, Bryon confirmed his wife’s affair with her adviser.
“I asked him about it and his response was, ‘I know. There’s nothing I can do about it,’ ” the woman told the Daily Mail.
Bryon did not object to reporting at the time that he participated in the chatrooms, but denied to the outlet that he discussed his wife having an affair.
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