What to Know
- Huma Abedin, a longtime Hillary Clinton adviser, announced her separation from Anthony Weiner Monday.
- The separation comes amid new allegations that Weiner, a former congressman and NYC mayoral candidate, was sexting with a woman.
- Weiner's congressional career ended after a 2011 sexting scandal, and his mayoral campaign was derailed by a second scandal
Longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin announced Monday that she was separating from her husband, former congressman and onetime New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.
"After long and painful consideration and work on my marriage, I have made the decision to separate from my husband," Abedin said. "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."
The announcement by Abedin, who currently serves as the vice chairwoman of Clinton's presidential campaign, comes hours after a New York Post report that Weiner was again sending sexually suggestive messages with at least one woman.
The photos and messages were published in the Post late Sunday and showed shots of Weiner either shirtless or in his underwear. One photo shows a child that the Post reports was his toddler son. NBC 4 New York has not been able to independently confirm the photos.
Weiner told the Post he had been "friends for some time" with the woman and that the conversations were private. He deleted his Twitter account hours after the Post hit newsstands on Monday.
NBC 4 New York has reached out to Weiner for comment.
Abedin and Weiner have been living separate lives for some time, a close friend of hers told NBC News.
“This did not happen overnight. This has been brewing,” the friend said.
Notably, in recent months, Abedin has not been seen wearing a wedding ring.
A second friend told NBC News that Abedin, who has been in the Hamptons for several days already, will likely lay low and focus on spending time with her family.
Weiner's congressional career was derailed when he tweeted an explicit photo of himself to a woman in 2011. He initially denied he had posted the image but later admitted to sexting with "about six women over the last three years" before resigning from Congress.
Weiner attempted to re-enter the political fray in 2013 as a candidate for New York City mayor and briefly polled as the leading Democratic candidate that summer. But Weiner revealed that he had sent explicit photos and messages to three more women since 2012, some under the alias "Carlos Danger," and his candidacy floundered. He lost the Democratic mayoral primary with less than 5 percent of the vote.
Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton's opponent in the presidential election, praised Abedin's decision to separation on Monday, calling it a "very wise decision" in a statement to The New York Times.
"I only worry for the country in that Hillary Clinton was careless and negligent in allowing Weiner to have such close proximity to highly classified information," the statement reportedly said.
