Politics
Kristi Noem Divorcing Husband of 34 Years After His Double Life Was Exposed, Mom Confirms
Kristi Noem‘s marriage is coming to an end.
The former Homeland Security Secretary and ex-South Dakota governor, 54, is divorcing her husband, Bryon, according to an article the Daily Mail published on Friday, July 10. The couple met in high school and married in 1992, per the report.
“It has been difficult, but we knew this was coming, that they were going to get divorced,” said Kristi’s mother Corinne Arnold, who lives next door to the ranch where the Noems lived and raised their three children: daughters Kassidy, 32, and Kennedy, 29, and son Booker, 24.
Per the outlet, Arnold, 77, said she last saw her daughter and Bryon together at a family birthday party in late spring, just weeks after Bryon’s secret double life was exposed. In March, news broke that Bryon, 56, had been actively engaging online with the “bimbofication” fetish scene, in which performers augment their breasts with saline to achieve a “Barbie doll”-like look — and that he had participated in the trend himself.
It was at that party that Arnold learned about the split. “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,'” Arnold said, per the article. “And I said: ‘Who is your lawyer?’ And she said it was somebody from Sioux Falls.”
Bryon moved out of the family’s Castlewood, South Dakota, home after the scandal broke and is now living roughly 20 miles away while continuing to run his insurance agency, according to the Daily Mail.
Arnold also denied claims that Kristi had an affair with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. “Kristi would never do that,” she said, per the report. “That’s not how I brought my kids up. And Corey’s got his own wonderful family and little kids.” Arnold added that she has met Lewandowski personally and found him “nothing but decent.”
As the National Enquirer previously reported, President Donald Trump fired Kristi from her DHS post on March 5, shortly before the cross-dressing disclosure became public.
