Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has filed to end her marriage to Bryon Noem, citing irreconcilable differences after more than three decades together.
Court records show she filed on April 6 in Hamlin County, South Dakota. NewsNation reported the documents list May 23, 1992, as the wedding date and name irreconcilable differences as the grounds.
The paperwork did not hit the online court service until Monday. On Tuesday, Bryon Noem told reporters, “I can’t comment right now.” Outreach to Kristi Noem did not succeed.
The filing lands after months of public chatter about the marriage. It also follows a late March tabloid leak of a photo of Bryon Noem. A private case is now on a public docket.
Kristi Noem served as South Dakota governor from Jan. 5, 2019, until Jan. 25, 2025. She resigned that day to become secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
She later left the DHS job and was named Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas. Bryon Noem runs an insurance business in South Dakota. Their life has mixed ranch-state roots with national politics for years.
That mix brought routine scrutiny. It also brought older claims she has already answered on the record.
Weeks before the late March photo leak, Bryon attended parts of a House Judiciary Committee hearing where Kristi Noem testified. Some questions focused on Corey Lewandowski and his role tied to DHS. Lewandowski earlier served as President Trump’s campaign manager. Noem has been linked to him in political coverage for years.
On Aug. 6, South Dakota unveiled a statue of Noem in Pierre. Bryon did not attend. She said then that her family, including Bryon, had backed her through the governor years.
None of that equals a legal finding about the marriage. The April 6 petition is the first hard court step described in the records.
In 2021, a conservative online publication accused Noem and Lewandowski of an affair. She answered on social media. She called the allegations “rumors” and “total garbage and a disgusting lie.”
She added a longer statement the same day:
“These old, tired attacks on conservative women are based on a falsehood that we can’t achieve anything without a man’s help. I love Bryon. I’m proud of the God-fearing family we’ve raised together. Now I’m getting back to work.”
That denial is four years old. It remains the clearest on-record reply she gave to the rumor mill. The new filing states only irreconcilable differences. It does not relitigate 2021.
Hamlin County now has a divorce case with Kristi Noem as the filer and Bryon Noem as her spouse. The marriage lasted from 1992 until the April petition. Grounds are the standard no-fault language used across the country.
Missing from the public summary are a docket number, full petition text, and any statement from Kristi Noem about the split itself. Bryon’s sole reply was that he could not comment. Tabloid photo details beyond the late March leak are thin in the available reporting.
So the verified core is narrow. A long marriage is headed to court. A high-profile conservative official put her name on the petition. Her husband declined to talk. Past gossip is still just gossip unless proven otherwise.
Public service does not cancel a family’s right to settle private business in court without a fresh pile-on dressed up as news.
