Ilhan Omar's husband Ahmed Hirsi wants divorce after she allegedly cheated on him with her campaign strategist
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's marriage could be spiraling down as her husband, Ahmed Hirsi, is set to file for divorce amidst an alleged affair revelation, according to one of the couple's close friends.
The New York Post reported their source as saying that Hirsi is determined to officially separate from the Minnesota Representative after it was revealed in a bombshell court filing that Omar allegedly had an affair with DC political consultant Tim Mynett. Omar and Hirsi allegedly separated in March, and the former asked Hirsi to divorce her at the time because she did not want to file the papers. Reports state that Hirsi refused, saying that if she wanted a divorce, she should do it herself.
Their friend of 20 years reportedly said that Hirsi eventually changed his mind after Mynett's wife filed divorce papers last week, claiming that her husband was having an affair with Omar. Hirsi allegedly became unhappy after the report came out because the allegations of an extramarital affair made him look like a fool.
"I’m surprised he hasn’t filed already,” the friend told the outlet. The source also said that the whole incident left Hirsi "very confused" because he still loved his wife and was not willing to expose their three children to a public divorce battle.
After the bombshell report of her alleged affair, the 37-year-old Congresswoman, in an interview with CBS affiliate WCCO, insisted that she was still with her husband and denied any allegation that she was having an affair with Mynett.
The couple, however, has been living apart since, around the same time she was spotted having dinner with Mynett at a restaurant in California. The source said their separation was an "open secret" in town and Omar has moved into a luxury condo in downtown Minneapolis, living away from her husband. Meanwhile, Hirsi, a senior policy aide to a Minneapolis city councilwoman, is said to be switching his stay between friends’ houses and at the luxury condo when Omar is not in town. The source added that their children were currently spending time with their grandfather.
The couple was first engaged in 2002, however, they never legally married and instead had a traditional Muslim wedding ceremony and had two children before splitting up in 2008. Omar, the subsequent year, married "British citizen" Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. They eventually split up and Omar got back together with Hirsi and had a third child in 2012. She officially divorced Elmi in 2017, and legally married Hirsi in 2018. The source told the outlet that the couple began having marital problems ever since she took office earlier this year.
Reports state that Hirsi was unhappy with Omar's constant travel, leaving him as the primary caregiver to their three children, aged between 7 and 16. Hirsi, in April, had shared pictures of a family vacation in Miami on social media, but Omar was absent in those photos. The caption of the pictures also had a cryptic message about new beginnings, as he wrote: "Nothing brings about more positive change than difficulties. It could be that it’s a means of your forgiveness. Or a driving force for you to change your mentality and your ways. It could be a small storm on your path, meant to prepare you for goodness that’s coming your way. Or a tougher battle that lays ahead."