Penelope 'Penny' Hegseth, born in June 1954, is the mother of Pete Hegseth and a longtime resident of Forest Lake, Minnesota, a suburb northeast of St. Paul. Of Norwegian-American descent with family roots tracing back to Norwegian immigrants (Haugen family line), she comes from a traditional Christian family background. She and her husband Brian raised their family in a faith-focused home, attending Eagle Brook Church, a large evangelical megachurch where she served as Pastor of Volunteers (prior to 2012) and Board Member (2013–2019). Hegseth is a career counseling professional who operates hegsethcoaching, LLC (pennyhegsethcoaching.com), serving as an Executive Strengths Coach specializing in leadership development, team building, staff training, and professional image-grooming for business executives, with a particular focus on Republican and right-leaning women. She has held positions including Board Chair of Covered With Christ (a Christian non-profit, 2020–present), Board Member and President Advisory Council of SPIRE Credit Union (2016–present), and has training from ILCT (likely Institute for Life Coach Training or similar). In December 2024, she appeared on Fox News' Fox & Friends to defend her son amid his nomination controversies, calling him a 'warrior.' In 2018, during Pete's divorce, she emailed him accusing him of being an 'abuser of women'—a message later leaked by The New York Times in 2024—which she regretted as sent in anger and reaffirmed her love for him.