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| - Shortly after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Fox News presenter Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense in late 2024, a rumor that Hegseth's mother once sent him a message accusing him of abusing women began to circulate. For example, the Facebook page of The Guardians of Democracy posted it on Dec. 1, 2024 (archived):
The post included a photo of Hegseth with a blond woman, with the caption:
"You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth." — Penelope Hegseth.
The claims spread on TikTok as well, under the hashtag #PenelopeHegseth.
The claims were based on the reporting of The New York Times. On Nov. 29, 2024, the newspaper ran an article with the headline "Pete Hegseth's Mother Accused Her Son of Mistreating Women for Years." The reporter obtained a copy of an email from an unnamed source close to the family. It was reportedly written by Hegseth's mother, whose first name is indeed Penelope. The New York Times published the entirety of the email, with just one line redacted for privacy.
The paragraph cited in the post above was one of the ones included in the email. A longer version of it read:
I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out..
You are an abuser of women — that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.
I am not a saint, far from it.. so don't throw that in my face,. but your abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out.
Samantha is Hegseth's former wife, whom he was divorcing at the time his mother reportedly sent the email. The divorce took 10 months to finalize, according to The New York Times, and it was contentious. The couple required mediation to decide how to divide their children's time between them. The acrimony went on far after the divorce. In 2020, Hegseth sent his ex-wife an insulting text, which he regretted, the Times reported, citing court documents.
The Times said Penelope Hegseth granted its reporter an interview in which she said she'd later regretted the email and had apologized to her son for sending it, an implied admission that she had written it and made those accusations.
Two days later, on Dec. 1, 2024, The New Yorker published a long profile of Hegseth and sought comment from Trump's press office about The New York Times' report. "A Trump spokesman denounced the newspaper's publication of the e-mail as 'despicable' and noted that Hegseth's mother had apologized to him for writing it," the article said.
We contacted the Trump transition team for comment and will update the article should they reply.
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