Yes, Hegseth's Mother Once Accused Him of Being an 'Abuser of Women'

During the Jan. 14, 2025, U.S. Senate hearing to consider Pete Hegseth's nomination as defense secretary, lawmakers called attention to allegations of misconduct by him — with one Democratic senator claiming that Hegseth's "own mother" has accused him of bad behavior in the past.

That senator, Tim Kaine, of Virginia, said (emphasis ours) in reference to Hegseth's alleged incidents of abuse:

We have seen records, with names attached to these, including the name of your own mother, so don't make this into some anonymous press thing. We have seen multiple names of colleagues, consistently throughout your career, that have talked about your abusive actions.

The rumor that the former Fox News presenter's mother once accused him of abuse circulated online during the hearing as well. For example, an anti-Trump X account claimed "even his own mother" would describe him as a "bad guy" (archived):

That post — which was authored by the Lincoln Project, a self-described "pro-democracy organization" that's fighting "Trumpism" — gained 214,500 views and 8,800 likes as of this writing. Another X post included a video clip of Kaine's comment (archived), gaining 1.7 million views and 40,000 likes. 

The claim stems from reporting by The New York Times. On Nov. 29, 2024, the newspaper published an article with the headline "Pete Hegseth's Mother Accused Her Son of Mistreating Women for Years," citing an email from an unnamed source close to the family. Snopes was unable to independently corroborate the email because an anonymous person released it to journalists.

We have reached out to Hegseth's team as well as Penelope Hegseth for more information. We will update this report when or if we receive answers.

Since no reports disputed the factualness of The New York Times' reporting and Penelope Hegseth herself reportedly commented on it, confirming its legitimacy, we considered the claim factual.

The rumor was not new. Shortly after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump nominated Hegseth as secretary of defense in late 2024, it began to circulate. For example, the Facebook page of The Guardians of Democracy posted it on Dec. 1, 2024 (archived):

The post included a photo of Pete Hegseth with a blonde woman, with the caption:

"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. 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." — Penelope Hegseth.

The claim spread on TikTok as well under the hashtag #PenelopeHegseth. 

The New York Times published the entire email credited to Penelope Hegseth, which contained the paragraph cited in the Facebook post above. The email read: 

I have tried to keep quiet about your character and behavior, but after listening to the way you made Samantha feel today, I cannot stay silent. And as a woman and your mother I feel I must speak out..

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. 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.

I am not a saint, far from it.. so don't throw that in my face,. but your abuse over the years to women (dishonesty, sleeping around, betrayal, debasing, belittling) needs to be called out.

Samantha is Pete Hegseth's former wife, whom he was divorcing at the time his mother reportedly sent the email. The divorce took 10 months to finalize, according to The New York Times, and it was contentious. The couple required mediation to decide how to divide their children's time between them. The acrimony went on far after the divorce. In 2020, Hegseth sent his ex-wife an insulting text, which he regretted, the Times reported, citing court documents.

The Times said Penelope Hegseth granted its reporter an interview in which she said she later regretted the email and apologized to her son for sending it, an implied admission that she wrote it and made those accusations. 

Two days later, on Dec. 1, 2024, The New Yorker published a profile of Pete Hegseth and sought comment from Trump's press office about The New York Times report. "A Trump spokesman denounced the newspaper's publication of the email as 'despicable' and noted that Hegseth's mother had apologized to him for writing it," the article said. 

We contacted the Trump transition team for comment and will update the article should we receive a response.