Samantha Hegseth Was Pete Hegseth's 'Ultimate' Wife - Inside Their Former Marriage

Samantha Hegseth, née Succop, is the second wife of "Fox and Friends" host Pete Hegseth. The breakdown of the couple's marriage had a similar plot to how the family values campaigner got divorced from his first spouse.

Samantha Hegseth and Pete Hegseth started their family a few months before their marriage. During a political campaign video, his parents spoke glowingly about his devotion to his wife and son.

The mother of three has kept a low profile since their divorce. Her children are often featured on their new stepmother's socials. While the circumstances around their separation have made headlines, they have kept the particulars of their custody agreement private.

Samantha Hegseth Welcomed Her 1st Child before Marriage & Became the Best Wife to Her Ex-Husband

Samantha Succop was born on January 1, 1970, in Minneapolis; some sources list her maiden name as Deering. The journalism graduate accepted a position as spokesperson for Vets for Freedom in 2008, where she met Pete, the executive director of the lobby group between 2007 and 2010.

Meredith Schwarz, Pete's first wife, filed for divorce in December 2009 following a breakdown in their marriage due to the executive director's infidelity with a colleague.

Samantha and Pete had their first child, Gunner Hegseth, in mid-2010 and married at the St John's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, that same year. The couple had two more sons, Boone Hegseth, born in 2012, and Rex Hegseth, in 2016, who attended the Liberty Classical Academy in Maplewood.

The Hegseth family were congregants of the Eagle Brook Church in Centerville. Less than two weeks after her husband's deployment to Afghanistan in 2012, he put his hat in the ring for Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat.

In a paper for Mitch Pearlstein's American Experiment symposium on fragmented families in October 2012, Pete Hegseth argues that the culture that he was raised in and his high education protected his family:

"I've been divorced and conceived a child out-of-wedlock with my second and 'ultimate' wife (to steal Pearlstein's verbiage). […] Had I been raised in a family where faith, fidelity, and fatherhood were not valued, my choices could have led to family breakdown."

Samantha Hegseth Only Had Praise for Her Ex-Husband as Well

For her husband's video screened at the Minnesota Republican Convention on May 18, 2012, Samantha said that Pete "bent over backward to ensure that he kept his role as a father present" while deployed in Afghanistan. The video featured "Beautiful Day" by U2.

Their combined seven children served in their wedding party at their outdoor wedding at the Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck in August 2019.

Which meant that Gunner always remembered who his father was. She said that she was blessed to have the senator hopeful back, adding that she knew his passion and there was "nothing stopping him." His campaign for the Minnesota Senate seat fizzled out after three months.

Samantha Hegseth Filed for Divorce after 7 Years of Marriage

A month after her husband and his lover Jennifer Rauchet had a baby girl, Samantha filed for divorce in Minnesota in September 2017. The "Fox and Friends Weekend" host was not discreet about fathering a child out of wedlock while married to Samantha.

Jennifer was a producer at "Fox and Friends" before the powers that be moved her to another show in the Fox News stable. She shared a photo with her new baby and Pete on social media. Weeks after the divorce filing, the White House hosted Jennifer and Pete at a dinner.

The producer has three children from a previous marriage. Their combined seven children served in their wedding party at their outdoor wedding at the Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck in August 2019.

Pete posted on Jessica's birthday in January 2023: "You are more beautiful, purposeful, and wonderful than anyone I've ever met." They relocated their family to Tennessee in 2023. Samantha has kept out of the spotlight since the divorce.