Report Says Pete Hegseth’s Wife Has Significant Role at Pentagon

Evelyn Hockstein / REUTERS A new report has pulled back the curtain on the embarrassing reason Pete Hegseth’s wife is always with him.

Jennifer Hegseth, 49, is ever-present at her husband’s side because the defense secretary, who’s repeatedly been accused of abusing alcohol in the past, counts on her to keep him out of trouble, one insider told The New York Times in a report published Wednesday.

According to 20 current and former administration officials and sources close to Jennifer, she has been serving as the defense secretary’s most influential adviser, prepping him for appearances, sitting in on his meetings with journalists, interviewing potential staff members, and even helping brainstorm ideas for Defense Department videos.

Last year, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Jennifer attended a highly sensitive meeting between U.S. and U.K. officials about military intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

A Trump administration official said their British counterparts spoke in general terms because the presence of Jennifer made them uneasy.

They later had a smaller, more detailed meeting without her.

One insider told the newspaper that Hegseth likes having Jennifer around to keep him on the straight and narrow.

The former Fox News host faced an uphill battle in the run-up to his confirmation, due in large part to concerns about his history of heavy drinking.

Jennifer is also said to have interviewed potential Pentagon staffers.

John Ullyot, the former Pentagon chief spokesperson who resigned after just three months, recalled that Jennifer once called him in.

Ullyot expected a pleasant meet-and-greet but said he instead got a barrage of “unexpectedly detailed and hard-edged questions” for about 40 minutes.

“It’s bonkers that a defense secretary would involve his wife in his sensitive official duties, including sharing details of an impending military operation, and face zero consequences,” Ullyot told The Times.

“Any president deserves better judgment from his national security leaders.” Pentagon spokesperson Joel Valdez lashed out at Ullyot in a statement to the Daily Beast, saying the former staffer is “acting like a crazy ex.” Valdez noted that Ullyot had also been “exiled from the MAGA movement by Donald Trump Jr.” In a statement to The Times, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell described Jennifer as “an accomplished leader in her own right and a devoted military spouse.” The Defense Department, he added, “not only welcomes her current leadership but actively plans to involve her even more deeply in the future.” Jennifer majored in journalism and spent 18 years as an executive producer at Fox News.

Her relationship with Hegseth started out as an affair in 2016, when they were both still married to other people.