There’s a Minnesota yearbook out there somewhere with a caption under two teenagers’ photo: “most likely to marry.” They were right. Meredith Schwarz and Pete Hegseth got married in 2004, years before he became a Fox News face and later Secretary of Defense. The marriage didn’t last. Her name keeps coming up anyway.
Table of Contents
Quick Facts
| Full Name | Meredith Schwarz |
| Meredith Schwarz Age | 45, born in 1981 |
| Hometown | Minnesota |
| High School | Forest Lake Area High School |
| College | Barnard College, Columbia University |
| Known For | First wife of Pete Hegseth |
| Married Pete Hegseth | 2004, Cathedral of Saint Paul, Minnesota |
| Divorce Finalized | 2009 |
| Kids with Hegseth | None on record |
| Career | Reported to be in finance/business, unconfirmed specifics |
| Meredith Schwarz Net Worth | No reliable figure exists |
| Now | Private, no social media, no interviews |
So Who Is She?
Ask around and you’ll get one answer: Pete Hegseth’s first wife. That’s true, but it’s also basically the ceiling of what anyone can confirm about her. She never did an interview about it. Never posted about it. Whatever she’s doing now, she’s doing it far away from a camera.
I grew up in Minnesota. I went to Forest Lake Area High School. Married young, divorced before thirty, and vanished from public records after that. That’s roughly the whole shape of her public story.
The High School Thing
Pete and Meredith met as teenagers, both at Forest Lake Area High School. Classmates apparently voted them “most likely to marry” in their yearbook, which is the kind of detail that only matters in hindsight. It did happen. They stayed together through college too, despite going to different schools in different states: Meredith at Barnard, part of Columbia, and Pete at Princeton.
Long distance for four years and it still held.
2004: The Wedding
They married at the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Minnesota in 2004. Pete was still early in his Army National Guard career at that point, and a 2005 deployment to Iraq landed right in the middle of the marriage. Being married to someone deployed overseas isn’t easy under any circumstances, and there’s nothing suggesting Meredith’s experience was any different.
Why It Ended
Meredith filed for divorce in December 2008. It was finalized in 2009, so five years, give or take. Court records reportedly cite an “irretrievable breakdown,” which is legal language for “it’s over” without getting into specifics. Several reports tie the split to infidelity that Pete later acknowledged publicly on his own. Meredith never said a word about it publicly, then or since.
No Kids
They didn’t have children together. Worth mentioning mainly because Pete’s later marriage, to Samantha Deering, produced three kids, so it’s a real point of contrast between the two relationships. Nothing more complicated than that.
What Does She Do Now?
This is the part nobody actually knows. A handful of sites guess finance or business, one or two mention hospitality, but none of it comes with a job title, a company name, or anything to check it against. Treat it as a rumor with decent odds, not a fact.
Net Worth: Skip the Number
Any figure floating around for her net worth is made up. Not maliciously, just because there’s zero public information to base a real number on. If a site gives you a specific dollar amount, it’s a guess.
Where She’s At Today
Nowhere findable. No Instagram, no LinkedIn, no one’s tracked down, no quotes to reporters, nothing. Pete’s public profile has only gotten bigger since he became Secretary of Defense, and Meredith’s has stayed exactly where it was: nonexistent by choice.
FAQs
How old is Meredith Schwarz? 45. Born 1981.
How’d she meet Pete Hegseth? High school, Minnesota, Forest Lake Area High School.
When did they marry, and when did it end? Married 2004. Divorced 2009.
Why’d they split? Meredith filed in late 2008 citing an “irretrievable breakdown.” Reports link it to infidelity Pete later admitted to.
Kids? None together. His three kids are from a later marriage.
Job? Reportedly finance or business. Nothing confirmed.
Net worth? No real number exists publicly. Ignore anything that claims otherwise.
Where is she now? Unknown, and that’s clearly intentional on her part.
