Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has told her family she plans to divorce her husband of more than three decades, Bryon Noem, after a public scandal over his alleged secret fetish activities destroyed what remained of her tenure in the Trump cabinet. The disclosure came from Noem's own mother, 77-year-old Corinne Arnold, who told the Daily Mail the family had been bracing for the split.
Bryon Noem, 56, has already moved out of the couple's home in Castlewood, South Dakota, and now lives roughly 20 miles away. No divorce paperwork has surfaced in South Dakota court records, but Arnold said Kristi told the family a Sioux Falls lawyer is handling the matter.
The unraveling traces back to March 2026, when the Daily Mail published an investigation alleging Bryon Noem had been secretly cross-dressing and exchanging messages with women working in pornography. He was allegedly photographed wearing fake breasts, balloons stuffed under women's clothing, and pink short shorts. Within days, Kristi Noem was out at DHS, reassigned to a newly created diplomatic post. Now the marriage itself appears finished.
Arnold, widowed since 1994, said she pressed her daughter directly about the state of the marriage. The exchange, as Arnold recounted it to the Daily Mail, was blunt.
"She doesn't tell me what she thinks. Finally, I said: 'What's the deal? Are you going to get together again?' And she said: 'No. No. We're going to get a divorce.'"
That conversation took place at a grandchild's birthday party in late spring, Arnold said. She offered no precise date.
Arnold confirmed the family had seen it coming. As Breitbart reported, the couple was already living separately before any formal announcement. Arnold told the Daily Mail plainly: "It has been difficult, but we knew this was coming, that they were going to get divorced."
She added: "I feel bad, sick that they're getting a divorce, but what else can you do?"
The Daily Mail's March investigation alleged that Bryon Noem had been leading a double life, engaging with online dominatrices and sending images of himself in women's clothing to fetish models. The Washington Examiner noted he was allegedly exchanging messages with at least three women working in pornography.
Kristi Noem's representatives said at the time that she was "devastated" and that the family had been "blindsided" by the revelations. She asked the public for privacy and prayer.
But privacy never came. The story collided with an already turbulent stretch in Noem's political career. She had faced two days of heated congressional hearings over her immigration enforcement record at DHS. Then, on March 5, President Trump removed her from the department and reassigned her as Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a new Western Hemisphere security post, as NBC News reported at the time.
Noem's departure from DHS was one in a string of high-profile exits from the Trump orbit this year. Noem was still occupying a military base mansion weeks after her removal, drawing additional scrutiny to an already messy separation from the role.
Layered on top of the Bryon Noem scandal were long-running allegations of an affair between Kristi Noem and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. The Daily Mail first surfaced questions about their "closeness" in 2023. The New York Post reported that Noem's non-denial of a sexual relationship with Lewandowski during a congressional hearing contributed to the circumstances surrounding her removal from DHS.
Noem has denied the affair. Her mother was more direct, calling the allegations "a bunch of crap" and defending both her daughter and Lewandowski.
Whether the Lewandowski matter played any role in the divorce decision is unclear. Arnold's account to the Daily Mail focused on the fallout from Bryon's alleged behavior, not on any third-party relationship. Kristi Noem herself has not spoken publicly about the divorce beyond what her mother relayed.
As of the New York Post's reporting on July 10, no divorce paperwork had appeared in South Dakota court records. That gap leaves open questions. Has a filing been made under seal or in a different jurisdiction? Is the couple still in a negotiation phase? Neither Kristi nor Bryon Noem has issued a public statement confirming or denying the split beyond Arnold's account.
Bryon Noem, for his part, has not responded publicly to any of the Daily Mail's allegations. He continues to run his insurance business from his new residence near Castlewood.
The broader pattern of turbulence inside the Trump administration this year extends well beyond Noem. ICE Director Todd Lyons stepped down abruptly after revealing a major fraud scheme, and reports have surfaced of friction between the White House and other senior officials over policy disagreements. Noem's case stands apart because the damage was personal before it became political, but the result was the same: a Cabinet seat vacated under pressure.
Kristi Noem arrived at DHS as a high-profile pick with national ambitions. She left under a cloud that had nothing to do with policy disagreements or bureaucratic turf wars. The March revelations about her husband's alleged double life detonated at the worst possible moment, right as she was already facing congressional scrutiny over immigration enforcement.
Her reassignment to the Shield of the Americas envoy role was framed as a lateral move, but no one mistook it for a promotion. The current status of that position remains unclear from available reporting.
Arnold, who has watched her daughter navigate public life from South Dakota, seemed resigned. The family knew. They waited. And now the 34-year marriage, built through Noem's rise from state legislator to governor to Cabinet secretary, appears to be ending in the most public way imaginable.
Washington chews through people. But some of the worst damage comes not from political opponents or hostile hearings, it comes from the lives public figures thought they could keep private.
