Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin announced here on Monday, August 29th that she and former US Rep. Anthony Weiner are separating after new reports surfaced that he sent sexually suggestive photos again.
“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband. Anthony and I remain devoted to doing what is best for our son, who is the light of our life. During this difficult time, I ask for respect for our privacy,” Abedin said in a statement.
Abedin was “furious and sickened” by the picture of Weiner and their 4-year-old son, Jordan, according to two people close to the family. Media reports quoting the sources said she did not know about it or details of the latest sexting exchange until this weekend.
Photos published by The New York Post late Sunday show the man completely and others feature Weiner’s face, but the photo of the boy has been partially blurred out, and the woman’s face is blurred out in her photos. The Post, which did not completely identify the woman, said she provided 12 selfies from Weiner. The paper described her as a 40-something divorced woman from the West.
Abedin and Weiner have been “essentially” separated for months, a close friend to Abedin said after she officially announced their separation on Monday. Weiner had resigned from Congress in 2011 after he accidentally posted a lewd photo of himself on his Twitter account. In the midst of Weiner’s first sexting scandal, it became known that his wife was expecting their first child.
Two years later he was caught again, sexting with an aspiring porn star from southwest Indiana named Sydney Leathers. During his run for mayor, Weiner, had adopted the online pseudonym “Carlos Danger.”
Weiner, who torpedoed his own political career five years ago with a sexting scandal and whose wife is Clinton’s closest adviser, deleted his Twitter account after the latest report surfaced.
Reports stated that the two of them exchanged racy photos over the course of about a year, including one exchange where she alleges that he sexted her with his son apparently sleeping next to him.
“Someone just climbed into my bed,” Weiner allegedly wrote in a message, sent July 31, 2015, according to the New York Post. He then is alleged to have sent a picture of a barechested man with white boxers and a bulge, while a small child is asleep beside him. “Your do realize you can see you(r) Weiner in that pic??” the woman replied, according to the Post.
Abedin and Weiner had been distant and “heading on a path apart” for a few months, but she was reluctant to leave, according to the two sources close to the family. Her faith is a big part of that, as she has told friends and even Vogue magazine, and she knew it would draw headlines. “She did not want this to be another distraction for Hillary,” one friend was quoted to have said. Abedin is reportedly Clinton’s most well known aide.