It was an extraordinarily awkward scene: a hometown birthday celebration in South Dakota for Kristi and Bryon Noem’s grandchild, held in April just weeks after the Daily Mail reported on Bryon’s cross-dressing fetish and explicit online exchanges with porn models.
While family members appeared to put on cheerful faces for the occasion, Kristi Noem’s 77-year-old mother pulled her aside to ask about the obvious tension surrounding the couple.
“What’s the deal? Are you going to get together again?” Corinne Arnold asked.
“No. No. We’re going to get a divorce,” her daughter replied, adding that she had hired an attorney.
The divorce papers were filed earlier that same month.
The Daily Mail reported Kristi’s plans to end the marriage in July, after speaking with her mother. Arnold said Bryon, 56, had already left the family home and was living about 20 miles away.
The filing, posted this week in Hamlin County court and citing “irreconcilable differences,” came as little surprise to residents of the couple’s hometown of Castlewood.
“Everyone took what the mom said to you as truth,” a local acquaintance of the estranged couple told the Daily Mail on Tuesday.
Kristi Noem has maintained a low profile in her hometown, according to locals. Over the weekend, however, she posted photos from the Buffalo Roundup in Custer, South Dakota
Kristi filed for divorce from Bryon Noem in April, shortly after the Daily Mail reported on his cross-dressing fetish and explicit messages with porn models
The Daily Mail reported on Bryon Noem’s hidden life as a cross-dresser after publishing photos of him wearing tight pink shorts and a flesh-colored crop top over large artificial breasts
“We knew this was coming, that they were going to get divorced,” Kristi’s mother, Corinne Arnold, told the Daily Mail in July
“She said they were splitting up and divorcing. So this is no surprise now.”
The 54-year-old former Homeland Security secretary, who was removed from her post in March, shared a series of social media photos over the weekend. She is now serving as a special envoy for the newly established Shield of the Americas and as a strategic adviser to Vancouver-based NovaRed Mining Inc.
Noem attended a pheasant hunting event in her home state with Greg Bovino, another former Homeland Security official and former Border Patrol commander who was also ousted.
She also took part in the Buffalo Roundup in Custer, South Dakota, where she was pictured on horseback.
Still, a Castlewood businesswoman said Kristi, a former governor, and Bryon—who operate an insurance company together—have largely avoided public appearances in their hometown in recent months.
“Kristi is still out at her ranch but has kept a low profile,” the source told the Daily Mail. “She put up a bunch of new fencing.”
“I haven’t seen Bryon at all,” she added.
Kristi and Bryon Noem married in 1992. Their relationship came under renewed scrutiny in 2023, when the Daily Mail reported on Kristi’s alleged affair with married political operative Corey Lewandowski.
Bryon Noem and Kristi were wed in 1992, but their marriage came under intense scrutiny in 2023 when the Daily Mail reported her alleged affair with married Corey Lewandowski. Kristi and Lewandowski were pictured spending quality time in Minnesota amid her divorce in August. She filed in April
News of the divorce filing comes just days the 54-year-old former Homeland Security Secretary posted a photo of herself on X at a home-state pheasant hunting event over the weekend with ex Homeland Security chief Greg Bovino
Noem, who is now special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York City last week. Despite her public facing appearances, locals say she has rarely been seen in her hometown of late
Her close relationship with Corey Lewandowski has been well documented ever since.
And observers wonder about the next step for the newly single former Secretary.
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‘Corey is still married, but the last time they were pictured together they seemed very close,’ said one.
Kristi and Lewandowski were pictured spending quality time in Minnesota amid her divorce in August, four months after she filed.
In images obtained by the Daily Mail, the two were seen cozying up to one another as they ate at an outdoor restaurant along the shores of Lake Minnetonka in Wayzata before enjoying a bike ride along the waterfront.
At one point during their outing, Noem was seen looking at something on her beau’s phone and laughing as they waited for food at The Grocer’s Table cafe.
‘Kristi and Corey are closer than ever,’ an insider told the Daily Mail after they were busted on the date-like outing.
It’s understood that Bryon, even after his own scandal broke, continued to message several of the women even after his lust for buxom fetish models was revealed to the world in March.
These included Shy Sotomayor, a Colorado-based dominatrix with massive 2500cc breast implants who was one of the several women to share their story with the Daily Mail.
Sotomayor was pictured and named in our April 10 article but she claims that Bryon got in touch with her five weeks later – as if nothing had happened.
‘May 17th, he texted me on iMessage. He’s like, “I’ve been a really bad boy.” I’m like, “Oh, I know. I know you’ve been a bad boy,”‘ Sotomayor told podcaster Spencer Macnaughton.
‘I sent him a very long message saying, you know, Bryon, I thought really hard on this. You obviously are very sick. You need help. If it’s not clear by now or after being America’s joke, I truly don’t know what is.’
Two more women have told the Daily Mail they, too, received messages from Bryon in the months after the bombshell expose.
One said the rancher and insurance mogul made small talk, refusing to be drawn on his future plans or say whether his marriage was over.
Another model said she didn’t respond because she was worried that Bryon was ‘fishing’ for information about the Daily Mail’s sources.
‘He’s still confused about who sent you the photos of him. I’m surprised he’s still reaching,’ she told us.
Bryon’s crossdressing fetish and explicit exchanges with online porn models were exposed in March by the Daily Mail. The vast trove of saucy texts, WhatsApp messages and images revealed that clean-cut Bryon had his own share of secrets
Bryon supported his wife back in March by sitting dutifully beside her at a congressional hearing scrutinizing her aggressive immigration enforcement tactics
Dominatrix Shy Sotomayor, who goes by the stage name Raelynn Riley, says Bryon served as her ‘obedient boy’ on and off online for nearly a decade
Kristi and Byron wed in 1992 but their marriage has been dogged for years by reports that the former Homeland Security secretary was having an affair with her longtime adviser Corey Lewandowski (pictured above)
Meanwhile, in their hometown, some residents were ready to turn the page on the scandal.
‘It’s more of a national story,’ one local told the Daily Mail. ‘The interest has kind of waned.
‘Honestly, I’m not sure people really care anymore what she’s doing now,’ the woman continued.
‘She’s no longer in a position of real power. If she wasn’t such a striking person, I don’t think people around here would care at all.’
Greg Bovino, who joined Kristi last weekend, said she is herself ready to move on.
‘She’s a powerhouse, indefatigable in everything she does,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘Anything she puts her mind to, she will be a resounding success.’