(JTA) — Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin said Monday she is separating from her husband, Anthony Weiner, a day after it emerged the disgraced former congressman sent a suggestive photo of himself next to a sleeping toddler that the New York Post reported was his son.
On Sunday, the Post published exchanges between Weiner and an unnamed woman that included sexually suggestive messages and photos. The two were said to have been corresponding from January 2015 to August of this year.
One photograph, reportedly sent in July 2015, shows former New York congressman from the waist down wearing only a pair of boxers. Next to him is a sleeping child identified by the Post and others as his son, then 3.
Abedin, who serves as vice chair of Clinton’s presidential campaign, said in a statement that she had decided to separate from Weiner, but that the pair remained focused on the well-being of their son.
“After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband,” Abedin’s statement read. “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.”
Weiner, who is Jewish, and Abedin, a Muslim, wed in July 2010, with former President Bill Clinton officiating. The two are featured in the recent documentary “Weiner,” about his aborted 2013 campaign for mayor of New York City.
Earlier this month, Weiner blamed the New York Post for setting him up for another online sex scandal, as the newspaper published a suggestive exchange between him and a man who had posed as a female college student.
Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 after he was caught sending an explicit photo to a female Twitter follower and later admitted to sending photos to several women. Two years later he attempted a comeback by running for mayor of New York and was caught flirting on Twitter again and sexting using the nom de plume Carlos Danger.
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