Acting Navy secretary orders return of Marine family after spouse’s viral plea from Germany

The acting secretary of the Navy has directed the Marine Corps to issue stateside return orders for a military spouse and her family after the woman said in a viral social media video that she feared becoming trapped in Germany as she divorces her Marine husband.

“We hear you loud and clear,” acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said Thursday in a post on X responding to the woman, whose Facebook account is under the name Jamie Robb. “You and your family will be home soon,” he added.

Cao’s intervention came two days after she posted a video on Facebook and Instagram saying that she was “terrified” she could be stuck indefinitely in Germany.

In the video, she said she has been a military spouse for 16 years and moved to Germany because of her husband’s assignment.

She said her husband is pursuing custody in Germany and wants to remain in the country as a contractor.

A screenshot shows Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao responding to Jamie Lenio's Instagram video, writing that he has directed the Marine Corps to issue orders for her return to the United States. The comment came after Lenio's video, in which she said she feared being unable to return home with her children amid a divorce and custody dispute in Germany, drew hundreds of thousands of views within days. (US Navy)

Attorneys she spoke with told her that German courts could determine custody based in part on where her children have established their habitual residence, according to the military-focused online publication We are the Mighty, which gave her name as Jamie Lenio.

She said she fears that under a 50/50 custody arrangement, she might not be able to leave Germany with her children even though their stay in the country was not intended to be permanent.

“We did not move to Germany because we decided to do it as a family,” she said in the video. “We did this because my husband is an active-duty U.S. Marine.”

Lenio has three children, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up to help with her legal and relocation expenses.

As of Friday afternoon, her video had drawn nearly 50,000 likes on Facebook and Instagram combined, and the campaign had raised more than $20,000.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao speaks at a ceremony at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., on May 2, 2026. Cao said in an X post Thursday that he directed the Marine Corps to issue travel orders for a military spouse and her children after she said in a viral social media video that she feared becoming trapped in Germany while divorcing her Marine husband. (Samuel King Jr./U.S. Air Force)

In her video, she said her marriage was ending after her husband had an affair with a superior, a married one-star Army general assigned to U.S. Africa Command in Stuttgart.

Stars and Stripes could not independently verify those claims. The Marine husband could not be reached for comment, and the woman had not responded as of Friday to an interview request sent Wednesday.

AFRICOM confirmed to Stars and Stripes that an investigation into an allegation of an inappropriate relationship between an Army general officer and a Marine officer was completed in 2025.

The command did not identify either officer or confirm that they were the people in the military spouse’s video.

The Marine officer was returned to service, while the general officer received nonjudicial punishment, the command said Wednesday.

U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa spokesman Lt. Col. Kurt Stahl said Thursday that the Marine had been placed on administrative legal hold pending further investigation into allegations of misconduct.

The case underscores the legal complications military families can face when a marriage ends during an overseas assignment, particularly when disputes over children cross international borders. When a custody dispute arises during an overseas military assignment, a parent who leaves the country without the children risks harming their custody claim.

Such disputes are often complex, with competing legal claims on both sides.

In some cases, the country where a military family lives can be considered the children’s “habitual residence,” which can help determine which country’s courts have authority over a custody dispute.

The United States and Germany have been partners under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction since 1990.

“I’m not asking the Marine Corps to let me secretly take my kids home,” the military spouse said in the video. “I am asking for them to send us all home as a family, or give my husband the option. Tell him: Either you send your family home, so your wife can move and have stability for the kids and have her own life, or go home with them, and you guys can figure out the divorce and litigate in the appropriate venue, not Germany. We are not Germans.”