It's over for Lauren and Jayson Boebert. The 36-year-old congresswoman from Colorado is splitting from her spouse of nearly two decades. "It is with a heavy weight on my heart that I have filed for divorce from my husband," she said in a written statement, per the Colorado Sun. "I am 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 added that she'd "always been faithful in my marriage," citing irreconcilable differences as the cause of their breakup. "I believe strongly in marriage, which makes this announcement that much more difficult," she noted.
Per the Sun, the divorce petition on the "irretrievably broken" marriage was filed April 25 in a Mesa County court. Insider has a timeline of the couple's relationship, which began when she was 16 and Jayson Boebert was 22. "He just took my breath away," she says of their first meeting at a Burger King. Jayson Boebert was arrested not long after they met for lewd exposure and public indecency after being accused of showing his penis in a bowling alley. He spent four days in jail after pleading guilty. The Boeberts' neighbors also called the cops last year on him, alleging he'd run over their mailbox during a dispute. No charges were ever filed.
Lauren Boebert has herself been arrested multiple times, including for disorderly conduct and reckless driving. Insider notes that Boebert has long lobbied for "strong families," and that she once advised women that they should turn to Jesus to take care of any marital issues they might be having. Meanwhile, her soon-to-be ex apparently didn't take being served with divorce papers well: The Daily Beast cites an affidavit that notes Jayson Boebert cursed at the process server who delivered the documents and set his dogs loose on them. The process server says Jayson Boebert was drinking a "tall glass of beer" and cleaning his gun at the time.
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Jayson Boebert denies doing either of those things, and says that while he was "upset," he didn't say "anything bad" to the process server, and that his dogs were "no threat." "The divorce is sad, I did not expect this," he tells the Beast. "I love her with every bit of my heart." He adds: "We have been through a lot together and I just want her to be happy. So it's whatever she wants." The couple, who were married in June 2005 or 2006, share four sons. The oldest, Tyler, now 18, was set to have a child himself in April with his girlfriend. (More Lauren Boebert stories.)