RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema acknowledges having a romantic relationship with a member of her security detail that began while she was a lawmaker, according to legal documents. But she also contends she shouldn’t be subject to a lawsuit by the man’s ex-wife who blames Sinema for the marriage breakup.

The North Carolina federal court litigation seeks financial damages from Sinema, who represented Arizona in the U.S. House and later the Senate for one term that ended early last year.

Heather Ammel contends in a lawsuit that she and husband Matthew had “a good and loving marriage” and “genuine love and affection” existed between them before Sinema interfered, pursuing him despite knowing he was married.

In a signed March 7 declaration attached to a lawsuit motion filed this week, Sinema said her relationship with Matthew Ammel “became romantic and intimate” at the end of May 2024 and “physically intimate” over the next several months in California, New York, Colorado, Arizona and Washington, D.C. The Ammels separated in November 2024, the lawsuit said.

North Carolina is one of a handful of states that allow jilted spouses to sue for “alienation of affection” to seek damages from a third party responsible for the breakup of their marriage.

Sinema’s declaration rejects allegations by Heather Ammel that Sinema made phone calls and sent internet communications to her husband with the knowledge that he was physically present in North Carolina and at times with his wife and the couple’s children. Sinema did send Matthew Hamel a message while he was in North Carolina after he had already found a new place to live and “when the marriage was already over,” Sinema attorney Steven Epstein wrote in asking the lawsuit be dismissed.

Sinema’s “conduct related to her romantic relationship with Mr. Ammel does not connect her to North Carolina in a meaningful way,” Epstein wrote Thursday, adding that no jury would believe that the one message “had any bearing on the destruction of marital love and affection.”

Sinema’s head of security hired Ammel after he retired from the Army in 2022, according to the lawsuit, and in early 2024, Heather Ammel discovered messages between Sinema and her husband on the Signal messaging app that were of “romantic and lascivious natures.” That summer, Matthew Ammel stopped wearing his wedding ring and Sinema gave him a job on her Senate staff while he continued to work as her bodyguard, the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit was initially filed in September in North Carolina state court, but it was moved to federal court in January.

Sinema declined to seek Senate reelection in 2024 following a term in which she left the Democratic Party to become an independent. She now works for a Washington-based legal and lobbying firm.