Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has filed for divorce from husband Bryon after more than three decades together, citing irreconcilable differences following reports of his online fetish chats and a cross-dressing photo.
The New York Post reported that Noem filed the papers Monday in Hamlin County Court in her home state of South Dakota. The couple married in 1992 and have three children: daughters Kassidy, 31, and Kennedy, 29, both mothers themselves, and son Booker, 23.
Noem, 54, is the former South Dakota governor who later served as Homeland Security secretary before President Trump removed her from that post. A representative for Noem said the family was caught off guard.
The rep told reporters she was “devastated” by the revelation and released a short statement seeking space.
"The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at the time."
Just The News reported the divorce comes about six months after her exit from DHS, as she continues public work in a new role.
In late March, days after her removal from DHS, the Daily Mail detailed Bryon Noem’s online activity. The outlet described hundreds of messages he sent to three models tied to the “bimbofication” scene and said he coveted “huge, huge ridiculous boobs.”
The same reporting described a photo he shared of himself in pink hot pants and a flesh-colored, well-endowed bodysuit. Those details landed while the couple’s long marriage was already under strain in public view.
Readers following high-profile splits have seen similar shocks before, including coverage of Noem’s earlier plans to end the 34-year marriage after the scandal broke into the open.
Noem’s filing lists irreconcilable differences as the ground. Court papers beyond that description were not quoted in the available accounts, and no docket number appeared in the initial reports.
Sources told the Post that Noem had a longtime romance with Corey Lewandowski, the former Trump campaign adviser credited with the 2016 New Hampshire primary win. Lewandowski is married with four children and later returned to his firm, Lewandowski Strategic Advisors, after his stint as a special government employee ended.
During her DHS tenure he served as her de facto chief of staff. Last month the two were spotted biking and canoodling along the shores of Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota.
Family fallout from public scandals has also drawn notice in related reporting on what Noem’s mother said about the divorce plans after the fetish story spread.
Lewandowski’s government role concluded; Noem moved on to a new assignment. Trump has long been fond of Lewandowski, and the personal timeline around the DHS exit and the Mail story sat close together.
After leaving DHS, Noem was named special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a State Department multinational security and anti-cartel initiative. The job comes with an office at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, steps from the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall.
Last week she attended a meeting between Trump and South American leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The president greeted her with a simple “hello.”
Marriage law and the right to exit a union remain live policy topics elsewhere, as when Missouri ended a decades-old rule that once let judges block divorce over pregnancy.
Noem has stayed visible in Washington while the South Dakota filing moved forward. The contrast is plain: a senior security figure handling cartel-focused diplomacy at the same time her three-decade marriage reached the courthouse.
The sequence is compact. Marriage since 1992. Three adult children and grandchildren on the daughters’ side. A DHS firing. A Mail report on the husband’s messages and photo. Public sightings with Lewandowski. A Monday divorce filing on irreconcilable differences. A family statement asking for privacy and prayers.
Celebrity and political breakups continue to draw attention across the culture, from recent Hollywood splits after years of marriage to harder cases abroad where women struggle even to be heard.
Noem’s representative framed the household as blindsided. The filing itself is a formal step in Hamlin County Court, not a press conference. Bryon Noem has not issued a matching public reply in the accounts summarized here.
Conservative voters who backed Noem through the governor’s office and the DHS tenure now watch a private collapse play out in public. The record shows a long marriage, a husband’s reported online conduct, a separate romance tracked by sources, and a clean legal claim of irreconcilable differences.
Personal trust still support public leadership, and when it breaks after 30 years the paperwork is only the final page.
