Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar has filed for divorce from her husband Ahmed Hirsi, with whom she has three children, The New York Post reports. According to the outlet, in the papers that she filed on Friday in her home state of Minnesota, the 38-year-old politician described the marriage as “irretrievable.”
“There has been an irretrievable breakdown of the marriage relationship”, the documents read, as cited by the newspaper.
The congresswoman pleaded for her and her husband to be granted “joint legal and physical custody” of their three children. She also asked for child support to be determined for them that will “serve the minor children’s best interest” as well as to award the “marital property” in a manner deemed “just and equitable” by the court. Neither Omar nor her husband seeks protection.
The marriage, whose history can hardly be described as stable, as they separated in 2008, six years after a religious ceremony, and legally remarried in 2018, reportedly began to show signs of strain a month ago over allegation about Omar’s affair with a political consultant whose firm received payments from the progressive Representative’s campaign. Reports suggested that Ahmed Hirsi was poised to divorce her.
Although the Daily Mail reported in July that the Somalia-born politician had split with her husband, speculation about their separation was fuelled after DC-based Dr Beth Jordan Mynett, 55, filed a lawsuit against her husband, claiming that he had ditched her in favour of Omar. According to the documents, the plaintiff claimed that she and her 38-year old husband Tim Mynett both worked for the Democrats.
In April, Tim Mynett allegedly told his wife that he was having an affair with Omar in a “shocking declaration of love”, and later left the family. The court filing says that Tim Mynett took their son to a dinner with Omar, and the Representative gave the boy a gift. Later, the father allegedly brought Omar to the family house while the mother was out of town.
The plaintiff claims that her husband put their son in “harm’s way” by bringing him to meet with the US Congresswoman, who “at that time garnered a plethora of media attention along with death threats”.
However, Tim Mynett denied that he had an affair in the response that he filed in September.
“Since the time of Mr. Mynett’s departure from the marital home, Ms. Mynett began a negative campaign against Mr. Mynett, seemingly in an effort to ruin his career and permanently damage his relationship with William and his step-daughter”, it said.
