Former Rep. Anthony Weiner who recently failed in his New York City mayoral bid after an elongated sexting scandal said his ensuing marriage problems don’t hit him as hard in the heart as they do his wife, Huma Abedin.
Usually, when press members ask about the state of the couple’s marriage, Mr. Weiner said he just shrugs off the implied accusations and criticisms, the Huffington Post reported.
“I duck it as best I can,” he said in the report. “But her reputation has become the Woman Who Married an Idiot and Stuck With Him. More of it rolls off my back because that’s the way I am constitutionally. She’s more sensitive.”
By contrast, he said: “I’m just an empty, soulless vessel, so it doesn’t hurt me much,” the Huffington Post reported.
Mr. Weiner also has the advantage of practice on his side. He’s been dealing with media questions about his sexting infidelities since 2011, when it first came to the public’s ear about his many lewd messages to women other than his wife. He actually become most sensitive to the issue when he was forced to confront it during his mayoral run — when newer allegations surfaced, even though he had previously stated his sexting days had ended.
He told GQ magazine that he felt worse for his wife and the way she’s been dragged through the press than for himself.
“We’ve had a very rough time,” he said, to the magazine. “It causes me a great deal of pain in the way [my wife] gets reported and the way she gets discussed. Her treatment in the press has been rough. It pains me because I deserve it. She doesn’t.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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