Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended his record at a Pentagon news conference on Nov. 10, 2026, with family members sitting in the front row. Later that day, the House referred articles of impeachment against him to committee, sidelining the effort. The public appearance was one of several occasions when members of Hegseth’s family have joined him during his time in office.
Hegseth has four children and three stepchildren. He shares three sons, Gunner, Peter Boone and Rex, with his former wife Samantha Deering. He and his current wife, Jennifer Rauchet, have a daughter named Gwendolyn. Jennifer also has three children, Kenzie, Jackson and Luke, from a previous relationship.
The seven children have appeared together in family photographs and at White House events. Their parents have also shared occasional snapshots of everyday life, from basketball outings to a school election that prompted a joke from Hegseth about his family’s first successful candidate.
Who are Pete Hegseth’s children with Samantha Deering?
Gunner, Peter Boone and Rex are Hegseth’s three sons from his marriage to Samantha Deering. Gunner was born in June 2010, the year his parents married. Peter arrived in August 2012 and goes by his middle name, Boone. Rex was born in October 2015.
Hegseth has posted about attending New York Knicks games with his sons and spending time with them at the beach. In January 2024, he shared that Boone had won a race for class president. His joke about Boone being the family’s first election winner came years after Hegseth himself sought the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota. Hegseth dropped out of that race in 2012.
Hegseth and Deering’s divorce was finalized in 2018. Before marrying Deering, he was married to Meredith Schwarz. The publicly documented family timeline identifies Deering as the mother of his three sons and Rauchet as the mother of his daughter.
When did Pete and Jennifer Hegseth welcome their daughter?
Gwendolyn was born in August 2017. Her parents knew each other from Fox News, where Jennifer worked as a producer and Pete was a contributor and co-host. Deering filed for divorce after Gwendolyn’s birth. Pete and Jennifer married in August 2019, two years after welcoming their daughter.
Gwendolyn has three older half-brothers on her father’s side and three older half-siblings on her mother’s side. Jennifer’s children from her previous relationship are Kenzie, Jackson and Luke. Together, they make up the seven children regularly referred to in coverage of the Hegseths’ blended family.
Hegseth was still working in television when he and Jennifer married. He left his role as a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend in November 2024 after President Donald Trump selected him to lead the Pentagon. His confirmation in January 2025 brought the family into a new setting, with some of their outings taking place at official events in Washington.
When have the Hegseth children appeared in public?
All seven children have attended White House events, and the couple have shared group photographs on social media. Family pictures have shown the siblings together at holiday gatherings and during the summer. Those public appearances provide a limited view of the children’s lives while their father’s work puts him in the news much more frequently.
The front-row appearance by members of Hegseth’s family at his November 2026 Pentagon briefing was different from a holiday photograph. It came as he faced questions about his conduct in office and the war in Iran. Coverage described family members in attendance without establishing that all seven children were there.
The family’s structure predates Hegseth’s Cabinet role. He became a father in 2010, welcomed his daughter in 2017 and married Jennifer in 2019. The seven children pictured together at later public events include his three sons with Deering, his daughter with Jennifer and Jennifer’s three children from her earlier relationship.