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\u201cOn behalf of all the women (and I know it\u2019s many) you have abused in some way,\u201d Pete Hegseth<\/strong>\u2019s mom, Penelope, wrote<\/a> in an email<\/a> to her son in 2018, \u201cI say\u2026 get some help and take an honest look at yourself\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The email\u2019s publishing comes as Hegseth, a Fox News host and President-elect Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s pick<\/a> to lead the defense department, is also facing a rape complaint<\/a> against him filed to police in October 2017 on his already rough journey to joining the next administration in Washington. (Hegseth, who later paid the woman a settlement, has held that he was falsely accused and that it was a consensual sexual encounter.)<\/p>\n Penelope Hegseth<\/strong> now says she regrets writing the email, which was penned during Hegseth\u2019s second divorce and was recently obtained<\/a> by the New York Times<\/em> from another person with ties to the family.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are an abuser of women \u2014 that is the ugly truth and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego,\u201d she wrote, noting that she still loves her son and will pray for him. \u201cYou are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time, Hegseth was in the midst of a contentious divorce from his second wife, Samantha\u2014they share three children together. Samantha, the Times<\/em>\u2019 Sharon LaFraniere<\/strong> and Julie Tate<\/strong> write, \u201cfiled for divorce after her husband impregnated a co-worker, part of a pattern of adultery that dated back to his first marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n In an interview with the NYT<\/em> on Friday, Hegseth\u2019s mom said that she quickly sent another email apologizing for what she had written in the first, adding that she had acted \u201cin anger, with emotion,\u201d in response to difficulties in the divorce proceedings. \u201cIt is not true. It has never been true,\u201d she said, defending her son. The contents of the first email, she now says, were \u201cdisgusting\u201d and that her son is \u201ca good father, husband.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump spokesman Steven Cheung<\/strong> said in an email to the outlet that the Times<\/em> was \u201cdespicable\u201d for publishing \u201can out-of-context snippet\u201d of a mom\u2019s correspondence with her son, noting that she had \u201cexpressed regret for her emotional message and apologized.\u201d<\/p>\n Just over a year after the initial email was sent, Penelope praised her son at his job<\/a> during a Fox News Mother\u2019s Day special. \u201cPete was a spitfire, in a good way,\u201d she said, the pair joking that he\u2019d been a troublemaker. She shared that she\u2019s \u201calways been proud of Pete\u201d and that \u201cmost of all, I love the way he loves this country. I do. I don\u2019t know anyone who loves this country as much as Pete.\u201d<\/p>\n Hegseth, now 44, is an Iraq War veteran and formerly served as the head of the conservative group Concerned Veterans for America. With no senior military or government leadership experience, some in the Pentagon and the broader defense world were shocked at Trump\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n