Pete Hegseth‘s wife Jennifer Rauchet and their seven children were present as Hegseth took the oath as the defense secretary. Vice president JD Vance who voted the crucial tie-breaker to get Hegseth confirmed administered the oath as his wife and children looked on.
Pete Hegseth has been married thrice and has one child with his present wife Jennifer Rauchet. Hegseth has three children with his second wife Samantha Deering. He is also the stepdad to Rauchet’s three children from her previous marriage. Hegseth’s first wife was Meredith Schwarz.
An Army combat veteran who served in crucial locations like Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, Pete Hegseth has a chequered past that came in the way of his senate confirmation. He was accused of cheating on his wives apart from other allegations involving sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse etc.

After his military stint, he joined Fox News as a contributor.
A bombshell dropped when a private email sent to Hegseth by his mother got leaked. The mail was sent in 2018 when Hegseth was in the middle of divorcing his second wife. “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego,” she wrote to Pete. “You are that man (and have been for many years).”
Clarifying that email, Pete’s mother said that was sent in a moment of anger for which she also sent an apology two hours later.
Just ahead of the confirmation, another complaint came from Pete’s former sister-in-law Danielle Hegseth, the ex-wife of his brother, who claimed that Pete was physically abusive to his second wife and Samatha Deering feared for her life. Samatha, however, dismissed the allegations and said there was no physical abuse in her marriage.
Amid the plethora of complaints, Pete was also accused of receiving a lap dance when he was in his military uniform — more than two decades ago. This was part of his former sister-in-law’s affidavit that she shared with the senators before his confirmation.
Danielle said Pete was in uniform at a strip joint in Minneapolis while in town for a National Guard drill in 2009. She said she was not present there but she was told he drunkenly left a bar and was found at a nearby gentlemen’s club from where he had to be dragged out.