Ashli Babbitt, the diehard Trump supporter who was shot dead by police during the Capitol riot, reportedly was in a "throuple" with her husband and a live-in girlfriend. Babbitt, 35, and her husband Aaron Babbitt, 39, lived-in with their 29-year-old girlfriend Kayla Joyce in San Diego, according to reports.
Joyce, a bartender, lived with the married couple for some time, and is sticking by her widower boyfriend, Babbitt's family confirmed. The news may come as a surprise to traditional conservatives, who have been lauding Ashli on social media as a martyr to the right, but often frown upon relationships outside of a marriage.
A Different Relationship
The three were apparently a perfect "throuple" and had a very happy life before the air force veteran was shot dead on January 6 as she stormed into the Capitol. "I thought she was just going to a rally," Joyce, who has known the married couple for about a year, said of Ashli, according to New York Magazine's Intelligencer.
According to family sources, Babbitt and her husband met Kayla about a year ago, and decided to welcome her into their open marriage, which was itself only a few months old. Although the news comes as a surprising and shocking to many traditional conservatives, who have been praising Babbitt for being a martyr, her family applauded her choices and preferences.
Babbitt's 21-year-old brother, Andrew Witthoeft, said his late sister was raised to welcome people of all sexual orientations, colors or creeds – as long as they were "Team America", according to a report in the Daily Mail. "She always said being an American is being an American, regardless of your race, your ethnicity or your beliefs. If you're team America, you're American regardless. That's how she always put it," he said.
Witthoeft also said that the three were happy with each other and would often holiday together. A picture posted on Aaron's Facebook shows the throuple at the beach, the women in bikinis and him topless, wearing sunglasses and a lion tattoo on his chest.
Mourning Her Loss
Joyce has been with Aaron and the both are trying to comfort each other since the death of the air force veteran. Babbitt was killed as she tried to climb through a smashed window in a panel beside a barricaded door in the Capitol.
However, despite having living with the family for more than a year, Joyce said she didn't follow her girlfriend on Twitter and didn't know about her fierce belief in QAnon conspiracy theories. At the same time she also said that the image of Babbitt that has emerged online isn't representative of the person she was.
"She wasn't a terrorist. She wouldn't have put herself in harm's way for any bad reason," Joyce told Intelligencer. However, Joyce had no idea that Babbitt would storm into the Capitol although she had left for Washington a day earlier.
She even learnt about her girlfriend's death from TV. "I actually saw it first on video when I was on the phone with multiple hospitals trying to find her," she said. "We found out through the news. Through live television."
That said, Joyce has demanded some privacy in the aftermath of Babbitt's death. She and Aaron have been spending the last few days speaking to the FBI and pair is awaiting the return of Babbitt's ashes and planning a small memorial. "I don't want this attention. We don't want this. She wouldn't have wanted this," Joyce said. "We were very local, private people. We barely even leave our community."
