Penelope Hegseth, mother of former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, wrote a heated email calling him an “abuser of women” in the midst of his 2018 divorce proceedings, according to The New York Times — a revelation that comes as Hegseth gears up for confirmation hearings to become President-elect Donald Trump’s secretary of defense.
The Times said the Penelope Hegseth copied Samantha Hegseth, Pete’s second wife, on the message at the time it was sent. The outlet received a copy from another person with ties to the family.
In the message, Penelope Hegseth wrote that she had to speak up “after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today.”
“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,” she wrote. “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.”
