Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) announced Tuesday that she and her husband of nearly 18 years are getting a divorce.
The Colorado Sun is reporting that Lauren and Jayson Boebert filed for divorce on May 11, and said court filings list the date of the couple’s separation as April 25.
In a statement to the Sun, the controversial lawmaker said, “It is with a heavy weight on my heart that I have filed for divorce from my husband,” before adding that she is “grateful for our years of marriage together and for our beautiful children, all of whom deserve privacy and love as we work through this process.”
Boebert said she has “always been faithful in my marriage, and I believe strongly in marriage, which makes this announcement that much more difficult.”
The Congress member cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split with her husband, but said she does not ”intend to discuss this matter any further in public out of respect for our children.” The couple share four sons.
She said she “will continue to work hard to represent the people of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District.”
Boebert has requested that a judge give her parental decision-making power and child support, according to the divorce petition.
The divorce might have come as a surprise to Jayson Boebert, who reportedly chased away a process server while yelling expletives when he was served with papers last month, according to an affidavit obtained by the Daily Beast.
“Once he learned that he was being served with Dissolution of Marriage papers he was extremely angry,” the process server wrote. “I tried to hand him the documents but did not take them. He started yelling and using profanities, and told me that I was trespassing, and that he was calling the Sheriff’s Office. I told him I was leaving the documents on the chair outside of the door, he closed the door then let the dogs out.”
Jayson Boebert was cleaning a gun and drinking a “tall glass of beer” when he was served, the affidavit noted.
Lauren and Jayson Boebert first met when she was 16 and he was 22. They met when he had lunch at a Burger King restaurant where she was working.
“He just took my breath away. I fell in love with Jayson immediately, and I knew, without doubt, that he was the man I was meant to be with — for better or for worse — forever,” she wrote in her 2022 autobiography, “My American Life.”
The couple married in June 2005, just months after they had their first child, Tyler. The relationship had its struggles in its early years. In 2004, Jayson Boebert pleaded guilty to public indecency and lewd exposure in an incident involving two minors at a local bowling alley.
Earlier this year, Lauren Boebert announced that 18-year-old Tyler was expecting his first child with his girlfriend.
On Wednesday, the lawmaker denied the process server’s claims in a tweet, where she also made sure to mention that her estranged husband never drinks beer from a glass.