Divorce Filing Cites Adultery, Deepens Scrutiny on Texas AG Ken Paxton Amid Senate Bid

AUSTIN, TX – State Senator Angela Paxton announced Thursday she has filed for divorce from her husband, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, citing adultery as the grounds. The development adds a profound personal dimension to the already formidable legal and political challenges that have long shadowed the state’s top law enforcement official.

In a post on X, Senator Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, conveyed the gravity of her decision. “I believe marriage is a sacred covenant and I have earnestly pursued reconciliation,” she wrote. “But in light of recent discoveries, I do not believe that it honors God or is loving to myself, my children, or Ken to remain in the marriage.”

According to a copy of the filing obtained by The Texas Tribune, the couple ceased living together “on or about June 1, 2024,” indicating a separation that began more than a year ago. The explicit listing of “adultery” as the grounds for divorce in the filing directly addresses prior public allegations that have been central to her husband’s ongoing controversies.

In response, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued his own statement, attributing the decision to end their marriage to the immense public pressure they have faced. He cited the “pressures of countless political attacks and public scrutiny” as the reason they had “decided to start a new chapter.”

The divorce filing comes at a critical juncture for Attorney General Paxton, who is currently preparing to challenge U.S. Senator John Cornyn in next year’s Republican primary. A prominent figure in Texas conservative politics for nearly a decade, Paxton’s tenure as Attorney General has been marked by aggressive legal challenges against the Biden administration, often paralleled by a consistent stream of personal and professional scandals.

Senator Angela Paxton, first elected in 2019 to represent the North Texas Senate district her husband previously held, was reelected to a four-year term in November. Her unique position as both the Attorney General’s spouse and a state legislator made for an unprecedented situation during her husband’s impeachment trial by the Texas House of Representatives in 2023. Though she attended the proceedings, she was legally barred from voting on any issues or participating in deliberations that ultimately led to her husband’s acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate after a nearly two-week trial.

The impeachment articles against Attorney General Paxton focused on allegations of bribery, abuse of public trust, and obstruction of justice related to benefits he allegedly provided to Austin real estate developer Nate Paul. Crucially, the impeachment investigation also delved into an alleged extramarital affair between Paxton and a former Senate aide. According to investigators, this affair reportedly ended briefly in 2019 after Angela Paxton became aware of it, only to resume in 2020. The woman at the center of the alleged affair was called to testify during the Senate trial but ultimately left the chamber without speaking.

Ken Paxton has a notable record of weathering legal and ethical storms. Since his impeachment acquittal, he has seen a nine-year-old felony securities fraud case against him dropped, a federal investigation into corruption allegations from former aides closed, and has overcome a State Bar of Texas attempt to sanction him over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Despite these significant legal challenges, Paxton has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to secure electoral victories, twice winning reelection amidst pending scandals. However, the public nature of his divorce filing, particularly with the explicit allegation of adultery, threatens to introduce a new and highly personal line of attack for his political opponents, potentially playing directly into Senator Cornyn’s efforts to highlight Paxton’s ethics record ahead of the upcoming primary.