New text messages obtained by TMZ have put Kyrsten Sinema back at the center of a North Carolina lawsuit filed by the estranged wife of her boyfriend, who says the lawmaker destroyed her marriage. In the reported exchange, Heather Ammel confronted Sinema after reading a message that said, “I miss you. Putting my hand on your heart.”
Ammel said she asked Sinema, “Are you having an affair with my husband?” and told her, “You took a married man away from his family.” She is suing Sinema in North Carolina, where she says the affair shattered her marriage to Matthew Ammel. Sinema has admitted the affair began in 2024.
The new messages add a blunt, intimate layer to a case that has already spilled into public view. One alleged message included a photo of Sinema wrapped in a towel showing her bare back and what appeared to be cupping bruises. Another alleged message said Sinema asked Matthew to bring MDMA on a work trip so she could “guide him through a psychedelic experience.” Heather Ammel has said she personally watched her husband receive messages from Sinema.
The legal fight is now about where the case belongs. Sinema is trying to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing the encounters at the heart of the dispute never took place in North Carolina. A judge has not yet ruled, leaving the case to move forward under the shadow of the newly reported texts and the question of whether the state has any authority to hear it.
For now, the messages make the dispute harder to keep private and harder to frame as just a personal breakup. They show a plaintiff saying she saw enough to believe the affair was real, and a defendant trying to stop the case before it reaches trial. The next decision belongs to the judge — and it will determine whether Heather Ammel gets to press her claims in North Carolina or has to take them somewhere else.
