Credit: Instagram Former South Dakota Governor and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is divorcing her husband of more than three decades, Bryon Noem, following explosive reports earlier this year detailing his secret life of cross-dressing and involvement in online fetish communities.

The news was confirmed in an interview with Kristi’s mother, Corinne Arnold, who spoke to the Daily Mail about the split.

“It has been difficult, but we knew this was coming, that they were going to get divorced,” Arnold told the outlet during a sit-down interview.

The report notes, “Arnold told the Daily Mail that she last saw the two of them together at a particularly awkward family birthday in late spring, just weeks after the news broke.”

The Daily Mail reports:

The Daily Mail can now reveal that in the aftermath she flew back to South Dakota to celebrate one of her grandchildren’s birthday parties.

‘This was a big party where the whole family was there, Kristi and Bryon, all my kids, all my grandkids,’ Arnold told the Daily Mail.

‘Bryon was holding and hugging the kids,’ she said. ‘It seemed like the old Bryon.

‘He was very nice,’ she added. ‘I hugged him, told him I loved him and he said the same.’
She also broached a difficult subject with her daughter at the party.

‘She doesn’t tell me what she thinks,’ the mom said. ‘Finally, I said: “What’s the deal? Are you going to get together again?”

‘And she said: “No. No. We’re going to get a divorce.”

The divorce news comes after the Daily Mail obtained hundreds of messages and photos showing Bryon Noem dressing as a large-breasted woman and talking to sex workers from the “bimbofication” fetish scene, where the people have exaggerated feminine features, like massive over-the-top implants.

Reports revealed he had sent tens of thousands of dollars to these women, with individual payments often ranging from $500 to $1,000.

Kristi Noem was described as devastated and blindsided by the reports.

Her representatives at the time issued a statement asking for privacy and prayers for the family, noting that the entire family had been caught off guard by the details of Bryon’s alleged double life.

The couple had been married for over 30 years.

Kristi Noem herself has not issued a personal statement specifically addressing the divorce filing.

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