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The ex-husband of “ISIS bride” Tania Joya told The Post that he learned his wife cheated on him with Texas Congressman Van Taylor through the news last Saturday.

Craig Bruma said the revelation of this wife’s cheating — along with salacious details of her affair — came to light on the weekend before the March 1 Texas primary, in which Taylor was seeking to again be named the GOP nominee for the state’s 3rd Congressional District in suburban Dallas.

“I didn’t know what to say,” he said. “I was shocked.”


  Craig Bruma and “ISIS bride” Tania Joya. Bruma told The Post he found out about his ex-wife’s affair through news reports.
 Craig Bruma and “ISIS bride” Tania Joya. Bruma told The Post he found out about his ex-wife’s affair through news reports.

Bruma said he and Joya had a roller-coaster relationship, even before she started hooking up with the Republican pol.

The couple got married in Las Vegas in 2018, after meeting on Match.com, he recalled.

But by September 2019, their marriage hit a rough patch when Joya told him she wanted to move to California.


  Rep. Van Taylor (R-Texas) was having an extramarital affair with “ISIS bride” Tania Joya. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Rep. Van Taylor (R-Texas) was having an extramarital affair with “ISIS bride” Tania Joya. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

He filed for divorce, but after a three-month separation, they decided to give their relationship another shot.

Things got strange, however, in October 2020, when Joya informed her husband she was going to meet their congressman, Republican Van Taylor, who represents North Texas.

Bruma said he normally drove her everywhere — but for this meeting, she said, she would be finding other transportation.

“When she didn’t want me to drive her, but she wanted to just get an Uber or Lyft, I was like, ‘That’s kind of weird,'” Bruma said.


  Joya was married to an American who joined ISIS.
 Joya was married to an American who joined ISIS.

He also recounted seeing the name Van Taylor come up on her phone, but she told him it was ongoing work with Taylor’s office to prevent violent extremism.

Joya, known as “ISIS Bride,” is the widow of an American who joined ISIS.

She eventually left Syria and moved to Texas, where Bruma says she did ongoing charity work to combat extremism.

After meeting in October 2020, Joya and Taylor — who is married with three daughters — began an affair that lasted until June 2021. Taylor gave Joya $5,000 to help pay off credit card bills and some smaller amounts of cash from time to time throughout their affair, Joya told The Post.


  Craig Bruma and Tania Joya got married in Las Vegas in 2018, after meeting on Match.com, Bruma said.
 Craig Bruma and Tania Joya got married in Las Vegas in 2018, after meeting on Match.com, Bruma said.

Bruma, an IT executive who normally bankrolled Joya’s extravagant lifestyle, says she stopped taking his money at one point — and he later found out it was at about the time she started carrying on with Taylor.

“All of the sudden, she didn’t need any money from me. Literally, I (normally) had to limit how much she could spend every week because she spends a lot. And then all of the sudden, I didn’t have to worry about it. I’m not sure that $5,000 was the only amount of money that was transferred or provided to her,” said Bruma.

“When I met Craig, I was pretty destitute, and then he wanted to leave me that way,” Joya told The Post. She says she needed someone to be her “hero” when she met Taylor.

Joya became increasingly emotionally unstable during that time, Bruma claimed, threatening to kill herself.

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Craig Bruma and "ISIS bride" Tania Joya
Craig Bruma and “ISIS bride” Tania Joya got married in 2018.
Craig Bruma and "ISIS bride" Tania Joya got married in 2018.
Craig Bruma and “ISIS bride” Tania Joya got married in 2018.
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Craig Bruma and "ISIS bride" Tania Joya got married in 2018.
Craig Bruma and “ISIS bride” Tania Joya got married in 2018.
Craig Bruma and "ISIS bride" Tania Joya got married in 2018.
Craig Bruma and “ISIS bride” Tania Joya got married in 2018.
Rep Van Taylor with his wife Anne.
Rep. Van Taylor with his wife Anne.VanTaylorTX/Twitter
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Bruma claims it was so bad, they were living in separate parts of their Plano, Texas, home. He filed for divorce a second time, and it became official in January.

Bruma has since moved away from Texas and said he learned of his then-wife’s infidelity when a news outlet called to seek comment on Joya’s affair with Taylor becoming public. Taylor has since ended his campaign to seek another term in Congress. Joya has an upcoming Discovery+ show and was moving out of the home she shared with Bruma when she talked to The Post.

Taylor did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.

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