Update March 31, 2026, 3:35 p.m. ET: This article was updated with exclusive new reporting
On Friday’s edition of The Megyn Kelly Show, Megyn shared that she was “reliably told by a source” that Bryon Noem planned to attend a rehab program for his “addiction” earlier this year. The source provided Megyn with text messages allegedly exchanged with him in January 2026 about his plans.
“I have been reliably told by a source and sent the text messages, which my source, who I believe, has provided to me that he attempted a 12-step program for sex rehab, that it was a place called Pure Desire, and that it incorporates the 12 steps,” Megyn shared. “We looked that up to see if that was a known rehab in South Dakota, and we found that it’s a like a 12-step ministry or Pure Desire Ministry.”
Megyn said the source told her that Bryon reached out to her “because of her big breasts and wanted in. She didn’t let it happen, but she and he struck up a text relationship and he confessed to her that – this is in January of 2026 – it’s a men’s group that he’s in.”
NOEM: It’s a men’s group …
SOURCE: …What type of men’s group?
NOEM: Recovery group
SOURCE: Recovery for what?
NOEM: Addiction
NOEM: 5 of us
SOURCE: What type 12 step program? …
NOEM: It’s not really 12 steps …
NOEM: I’m a work in progress!
SOURCE: So what is your recovery group for
SOURCE: All of us are working in progress
NOEM: I am entering a therapy program. Much needed and much overdue. 40 days …
SOURCE: So which treatment are you going to?
NOEM: …It’s called Pure Desire. It incorporated the 12 steps.
SOURCE: Never heard of it, but it should be good. Most 12 steps are.
“This person believes he left the program early and did not complete the 40 days, nor the 12 steps,” Megyn said. “It seems like he was genuinely wrestling with his addiction or fetish or whatever… Like, if you do that behind the scenes before you’re caught, clearly the guy does have a problem.”
Original article from April 3, 2026 below:
Rumors about Kristi Noem’s marriage have swirled in recent years due to questions about her relationship with former Trump advisor Corey Lewandowski. But a bombshell report from The Daily Mail is now putting her husband in the spotlight.
The Report
The outlet dropped a stunning story Tuesday about the “secret double life of Kristi Noem’s crossdressing husband,” alleging Bryon Noem is actively engaged in the online “bimbofication” fetish scene. The community reportedly involves adult performers massively enlarging their breasts to achieve a “Barbie doll”-like appearance.
The Daily Mail cited “hundreds” of messages the 56 year old purportedly sent to three women in which he praised their overly augmented appearances and shared that he desired “huge, huge ridiculous boobs.” But Bryon participated another way as well. The Mail obtained photos of him allegedly donning enormous prosthetic breasts while wearing form-fitting spandex. In a selfie shared with one of his virtual contacts that clearly shows his face, the father-of-three appears to have stuffed balloons into his shirt and positioned the knots to resemble nipples.
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn said the photos resemble another infamous crossdresser. “Think Kayla Lemieux. Think of the Canadian shop teacher,” she said. “He’s clearly put on a tight little sports bra that’s sort of nude colored and has stuffed two enormous balloons down there for his breasts… and then little hot pink biker shorts below, or maybe they’re leggings. I can’t see far down enough, thank God.”
Representatives for the former Department of Homeland Security secretary-turned-special envoy for the Shield of the Americas told The New York Post she is “devastated” by the report. “The family was blindsided by this, and they ask for privacy and prayers at this time,” the rep added.
The National Security Concerns
But there are now questions about whether her husband’s behavior could have made her vulnerable to blackmail. National security experts the Mail consulted with said there is cause for concern given her role, which included overseeing immigration enforcement.
“It is obviously very salacious, but it is relevant because, if we had known this, she never would have been confirmed for [the DHS] post,” Megyn said. “It makes her subject to blackmail because if The Daily Mail can find these pictures and this fetish by her married husband, so can our adversaries and who knows who could go to Kristi Noem when she was DHS secretary and say, ‘You will do the following things, or we will run to The New York Times with these photos.'”
According to The Daily Mail, Bryon was repeatedly asked for money during his wife’s 14-month tenure at DHS and he reportedly sent at least $25,000 via Cash App and PayPal to his acquaintances. When the outlet reached Bryon by phone, he did not deny the explicit conversations or photos, but he denied making any “indiscreet comments” about his wife that could have exposed her to blackmail or endangered national security.
“Yeah, I made no comments like that, that would lead to that,” he told the Mail. “I deny the second part.”
As it relates to concerns about blackmail, Axios reporter Marc Caputo revealed on X after The Daily Mail story broke that he received a tip back in February about Bryon’s history, but he wasn’t able to see it through. He said he received a text from a source on February 13 that read, “Yeah, I got a weird lead.”
Caputo said the source told him “an immigrant sex worker, possibly in the country illegally, wanted to go public about Noem’s husband using her services online” and “it was vengeance for DHS’ immigration enforcement.” He said he “couldn’t land the interview” and was sharing that information now “because folks sometimes wonder how reporting works.”
“Here, I would’ve needed to talk to the accuser [and] verified the info the way the Mail did,” he wrote on X.
Regardless of who is responsible for the story being made public, Megyn’s guests, Tom Bevan and Andrew Walworth of RealClearPolitics, both agreed the situation has serious national security implications.
Bevan said it also “raises the question about… [whether] spouses be vetted for these positions” because “the obvious implication is that they go to him and say, ‘Listen, if you don’t start leaking us information about what’s going on in Department of Homeland Security, we’re gonna expose this.'”
Should Noem Resign?
Even with Kristi Noem now reassigned to the special envoy position, Walworth believes it is time for her to step aside. “My feeling is she should probably just resign from public life and take some time off to deal with her family,” he said. “This is embarrassing, and it’s a terrible look.”
In a “normal society,” Walworth posited the former secretary would resign from her position, return to South Dakota, and the story would eventually die down. In this world, however, he wondered whether Bryon will soon find some unlikely allies.
“I am waiting for the Democrats to come to his defense. That’s what I’m waiting for,” he quipped. “Because this is supposed to be okay, right? Whatever he is thinking, he’s on some sort of spectrum and, you know, there are more than one gender and this happens to be one that, you know, you have a man’s haircut and big boobs. I mean, why can’t that be one of the 58 genders?”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Bevan and Walworth by tuning in to episode 1,285 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s The Megyn Kelly Channel (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.