Inside Pete Hegseth's Secret Relationship With Controversial Pastor Who Bashed 'Immodest' Women and Wants to Repeal Their Voting Rights
Pete Hegseth's relationship with Doug Wilson has been exposed.
July 7 2026, Published 5:30 p.m. ET
Pastor Doug Wilson has revealed he stays in contact with Pete Hegseth, as their secret relationship is now exposed, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The controversial pastor, who was previously invited by the Secretary of Defense to give a sermon at the Pentagon, sat down with NPR to discuss his connection with Hegseth.
Doug Wilson on Pete Hegseth: 'I've Communicated With Him Some'
Pastor Doug Wilson spoke about his relationship with Hegseth in a wide-ranging interview.
"... I've communicated with him some," Wilson revealed to the publication's Leila Fadel. "He obviously invited me to do the Pentagon service, and I met with him when I was there. I've communicated. I've met with him. I met him a few times at church, once in Tennessee, and um, once or twice in DC."
The 73-year-old then noted he has "texted some" with Wilson, but that's not a lot." When asked if Hegseth has reached out to him or other pastors within the church for "advice on policy matters," Wilson was quick to shut it down.
"Not to my knowledge. Certainly not from me," he claimed. "I think it is crucial for pastors, when it comes to situations like this, to stay in their lane. Let's say I've got thoughts on the Strait of Hormuz. I don't have security clearances. I wasn't elected to anything."
Wilson, who has written about his disapproval of the Iran war in his personal blog, claimed he had not expressed those thoughts to the former Fox News personality.
Doug Wilson's Controversial Thoughts on Women Exposed
Hegseth once invited Wilson to give a sermon at the Pentagon.
"I've written about them, and he may have read them," Wilson said during the interview. "But I've been very careful not to take my position as pastor and say, I've got a pipeline to the secretary."
Hegseth has faced backlash for keeping a connection to Wilson, especially after the pastor revealed his controversial thoughts on women, including wanting to repeal their voting rights in exchange for "household voting," calling it a "good idea."
Previously, Wilson bashed women who do not dress up to his standards these days, pointing out that yoga pants are even crossing the line.
He told The Times earlier this year, "Men know what they think of hookers, which is not very much. When you're just giving it away to every slob on the bus who wants to look, you're degrading the currency."
'It Is Possible to Be Modest and Attractive'
The controversial pastor admitted he wants to repeal a woman's right to vote.
Wilson, who founded the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) in the 1990s, also doesn't believe women should be completely covered up.
He explained at the time, "Wrapping them up in a bedsheet is another way of degrading them. It is possible to be modest and attractive – attractive without attracting. Bundling them up the way really conservative Muslims do is a different kind of degradation."
The pastor ranted, "Like you're not a person. But for a woman to dress like a s---s is a different kind of degradation. Both kinds of degradation play off of each other."
Wilson also labeled feminists "small-breasted biddies" in a previous blog post and claimed some married men would be distracted by "some chick is walking toward them, bouncing away like there’s no tomorrow."
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'We've texted some,' Wilson said of his relationship with the Secretary of Defense.
Wilson has also revealed he doesn't agree with homosexuality, calling it a sin, and admitting he wasn't a fan of President Trump's decision to hire openly gay Scott Bessent as his Treasury secretary.
Trump is "not someone I would call a godly Christian man," Wilson told The Times in the interview, adding he wasn't happy after the president appeared to portray himself as Jesus Christ in a shocking AI photo.
