Weird Things About Fox News Anchor Pete Hegseth's Marriage

Pete Hegseth's marriage to Jennifer Rauchet was thrust into the spotlight following a shocking revelation that he paid a woman an undisclosed amount of money after she accused him of sexual assault in 2017. Hegseth's attorney, however, told The Washington Post that his client strongly felt that he was "the victim of blackmail" and that he "ultimately decided to enter into a settlement for a significantly reduced amount" due to his fears about the MeToo movement. Nevertheless, the allegations proved to be quite damaging to both Hegseth's career and his reputation as a married man. 

Still, Hegseth's wife of five years, Rauchet, has made it very clear that she is standing by her man, even locking arms with him as he's made his way in and out of various meetings with senators on Capitol Hill in hopes of securing a confirmation as Secretary of Defense after all. "My rock," Hegseth penned in an Instagram post, along with a photo of the couple gazing into one another's eyes amid the hustle and bustle of the high-stakes hearings. Nevertheless, amid all of the chatter about Hegseth's alleged sexual assault allegations, some weird things have been uncovered about his marriage to Rauchet.

As it turns out, Pete Hegseth and Jennifer Rauchet's meet-cute wasn't exactly above board. For starters, they were both married to different people. To make matters worse, they met while working at Fox News — he as an on-air personality and her as his producer. "Jen would always insist on being there. She had her eyes on him all the time and watched him like a hawk," a source told the Daily Mail. "People very much started to notice she had more than a professional interest in his performance." As for Hegseth? "He always had a bit of a reputation as being a skirt chaser," the source added. It should be noted that once the couple confirmed their relationship, she was promptly moved to a different show on the network. 

Prior to that, however, Hegseth and Rauchet's workplace love affair reportedly came to a head at a company Christmas party in 2016. The story goes that Rauchet's then-husband had grown rather suspicious and opted to attend the employees-only event. Reportedly, Hegseth was none too pleased by the presence of Rauchet's hubby at the party, and it's said that some commotion arose as a result.

Did Jennifer Rauchet play a role in Tucker Carlson's sudden exit at Fox News? Aside from the fact that it's frowned upon to participate in an extramarital affair, it's rumored that once they married, Rauchet may have had a little something-something to do with Tucker Carlson's ousting in hopes of paving the way for her hubby, Pete Hegseth. Internet personality Stew Peters peddled the theory on X, formerly Twitter, citing "reports from credible sources." One of the statements claimed that "Exec Producer Jennifer Rauchet told [Tucker Carlson] he couldn't run the segment so he quit." Meanwhile, another one of Peters' sources claimed, "Jennifer is a nobody who is Pete Hegseth's wife. She obviously was sent to give a message."

It should be noted, however, that Hegseth has vehemently denied that his wife had any part in Carlson's departure from Fox News. In his own tweet, he declared Peters' reporting to be "the fakest news [he had] ever seen" while also proclaiming his and his wife's affection for Carlson. He added, "My amazing wife @JennyHegseth had absolutely nothing to do with anything. Not one iota."

Third time's the charm? We would be remiss not to discuss that Pete Hegseth's marriage to Jennifer Rauchet makes three. Prior to Rauchet, Hegseth married his high school sweetheart, Meredith Schwarz, in 2004. Sadly, the union did not have a fairytale happy ending. According to Vanity Fair, much of their marriage was spent apart and rife with extramarital affairs on Hegseth's part. Finally, in 2008, Schwarz filed for divorce from Hegseth, with infidelity listed as the reason for the divorce proceedings.

As for Hegseth, he wasted no time jumping right back into married life. In 2010, he wed Samatha Deering, a woman sources claim he had an affair with while married to Schwarz. The couple went on to have three children together before they, too, split. It's reported that Deering filed for divorce in 2017 after Rauchet gave birth to Hegseth's child. Amid the turmoil of his second divorce, it appears even Hegseth's own mother, Penelope Hegseth, was disgusted by her son's track record. In an email obtained by the New York Times, Penelope referred to her son as "an abuser of women." She added, "I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years)." It should be noted, however, that in a recent interview on "Fox & Friends," she expressed regret for the email, explaining that it was one she "wrote that in haste."

Can a tiger really change his stripes? It's no secret that Pete Hegseth and Jennifer Rauchet were both married to other people when their relationship began. But as the old saying goes, what goes around comes around. During a no-holds-barred sit-down interview on "The Megyn Kelly Show," Hegseth confirmed that the encounter in the Monterey hotel room with another woman that ultimately resulted in the sexual assault allegations against him occurred while he was in a relationship with Rauchet. "Being in a hotel room with someone that's not the person you're with is not okay. I own up to that, and I've had to own up to that, and that's been difficult, and my wife's amazing, and you know she knew about it, but going through it again is not easy," he divulged. 

However, that particular dalliance proved to be different, as his marriage to Rauchet did not end in divorce following the revelation. According to Hegseth, it only made him and Rauchet closer. "My wife and I got together — we prayed about it a lot — and said, 'We know the slings and arrows are coming. We're going to lock shields.' That's why we're together on the hill. We're together everywhere in this process," he told Kelly.

It takes two, baby! Amid the rumors flying around that Pete Hegseth has a sordid history with alcohol, the messy rumors circling his marriage, and all of the other scandals that rocked his reputation, many have come out of the woodwork to share their own stories of witnessing Hegseth's bad behavior in action. Unfortunately, according to one account, his wife, Jennifer Rauchet, has also been a participant in Hegseth's rowdy antics. A source told the Daily Mail that back in 2017, both Hegseth and Rauchet behaved very poorly while attending a wedding. "They couldn't keep their hands off each other. They were, frankly an embarrassment." But that's not all. "'He and Jen were sloppy drunk," another guest at the wedding claimed. "His jacket came off, next the tie was off then he was unbuttoning his shirt. And they were just all over each other."

These days, however, it appears that the married couple keeps each other on the straight and narrow. In December 2023, Hegseth told the Nashville Christian Family that he and Rauchet have centered their marriage and their blended family, complete with seven children, around their Christian faith. "About 2018, I entered the Colts Neck Community Church with my wife (who was wary of what evangelical Baptists were like), and faith became real." Since then, the family made the move to Middle Tennessee in search of "a smaller community," enrolled their children in a school that adheres to a Classical Christian education, and never looked back. "Truly inviting [Jesus] into my heart — to command my life — has been edifying and liberating," he declared.