Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for secretary of defense, admitted to his first wife that he had cheated on her five times, calling himself “a f--ked up individual,” as their relationship crumbled amid his infidelity, Vanity Fair has reported.
While reports already existed of Hegseth’s penchant for adultery—including a scathing letter published last week by The New York Times in which his own mother accused him of mistreating women—unnamed sources close to the former couple have now shared with Vanity Fair details of the former Fox News host’s tumultuous first marriage, which initially had a storybook beginning.
Hegseth and Meredith Schwarz were high-school sweethearts in Minnesota (reportedly voted “most likely to marry” by their 1999 graduating class), who dated long-distance while he was at Princeton and she at Barnard.
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After graduating college, the two married. But Hegseth’s decision, in 2005, to volunteer for a tour of duty in Iraq meant they were again apart. This didn’t change even after Hegseth returned from overseas—he led the political advocacy group Vets for Freedom in Washington, D.C., while Schwarz pursued an investment banking career at JPMorgan in New York City.
The sources said that Hegseth’s political aspirations were already apparent, as were his far-right convictions.
“We would argue about women’s reproductive rights,” one person told Vanity Fair. “He had some regressive views on birth control. His position was basically, if you got pregnant it was your fault.”
While the couple remained together despite frequently being geographically apart, Hegseth already displayed behavior that troubled the two’s friends. Two sources told Vanity Fair that, on one occasion, Hegseth went out for a night of drinking with his college friends, but didn’t return, prompting Schwarz to call hospitals. He returned in the morning and castigated his wife for fretting about his absence.
A representative for Hegseth did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment on Vanity Fair’s report. When sent a “detailed list of questions” from Vanity Fair, Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, did not respond “and instead provided a statement that impugned my record as a reporter,” author Gabriel Sherman wrote.
In spring 2008, Hegseth reportedly told Schwarz that he wanted to move back to Minnesota with her, where he would pursue a graduate degree at the University of Minnesota. Eager to be reunited with her husband, Schwarz quit her finance job, sold her apartment, and moved to Minneapolis.
But Hegseth didn’t come. He waffled on his plans, sources said, offering different stories to Schwarz about what was going on. Meanwhile, she suffered.
“In her journal she was begging God to help her figure out what was happening,” a friend of Schwarz’s told Vanity Fair.
In November of that year, Hegseth took a trip to Minnesota (wearing his army uniform) and finally admitted his infidelity to Schwarz. She was crushed, the sources said, and Hegseth himself seemed racked by guilt.
Schwarz’s younger brother called Hegseth the next day for an hours-long conversation, a source familiar with the situation told Vanity Fair.
“Pete said he no longer believed in God and family values,” the source said. “He claimed he no longer wanted to seek the limelight. He said, and this quote is as clear as day, ‘I’m a f--ked up individual.’”
Although Schwarz still tried to make the marriage work—she loved him—it didn’t last long. She noticed charges for hotel rooms on her credit card that she didn’t recognize.
Confronted about it, Hegseth couldn’t give a straight answer, sources said, but Schwarz would later learn that the room was for him and Samantha Deering, a woman who also worked at Vets for Freedom whom Hegseth would later marry.
Hegseth reportedly admitted to Schwarz that he had had five affairs while the two were married, which was when she decided to end their communication and divorce him.
He apparently didn’t learn his lesson—in 2017, he had a baby with Fox News producer Jennifer Rauchet, who he began dating while still married to Deering. When she found out, she too divorced Hegseth. He and Rauchet married in 2019, remaining together today.
Less than two months before that the child was born, Hegseth allegedly committed sexual assault against another woman, although he has denied this accusation, saying it was consensual sex.
Although Trump—who was reportedly blindsided by the accusation of sexual assault against Hegseth—has so far stood by his nominee to head the Department of Defense, Hegseth will surely face an uphill battle before the Senate.
