Hegseth’s mother condemned his treatment of women in an email sent when he was going through an acrimonious divorce. She told the Times that she sent the email “in anger” and has disavowed her accusations.

I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego,” Penelope Hegseth wrote in a 2018 email she now regrets, per New York Times.