Freida Pinto to Produce and Star in TV Series Based on Hillary Clinton Aide Huma Abedin’s Memoir
- Published in 2021, “Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds” explores the power of family, and friendship, as well as “the feelings of love, loss, betrayal, trauma and re-birth.
Actress Freida Pinto is adapting Huma Abedin’s memoir “Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds” into a television series, Deadline has reported. Pinto, 37, will star in the series as well and will play the 46-year-old Abedin, who is a top Hillary Clinton aide and longtime advisor. Pinto and her producing partner Emily Verellen Strom will executive produce alongside Abedin. No writer or director has been attached to the project as of yet, and it’s unclear when production may move forward.
Published in 2021, “Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds” explores the power of family, friendship, of commitment as well as “the feelings of love, loss, betrayal, trauma, re-birth Born in the United States to a father raised in India and a mother from Pakistan, she spent much of her childhood in Saudi Arabia.
She has spent her entire career in public service and national politics, beginning as an intern in First Lady Hillary Clinton’s office in 1996. After four years in the White House, she worked in the US Senate as Senior Advisor to Senator Clinton and was traveling Chief of Staff for Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. In 2009, she was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff at the US Department of State. Abedin served as Vice Chair of Hillary for America in 2016, which led to the first woman elected nominee of a major political party.
Abedin took to Twitter to share the news. “When I first saw Freida Pinto on screen, she blew me away with her talent. I am so thrilled she will be bringing my story to life on TV!”
She told Deadline that since her first conversation with Pinto and Verellen Strom, she knew that the two “not only believe in but get the story, that they have a vision and a passion about bringing a life filled with unexpected adventures to the world in a way that is true to who I hope to remain always – defiantly optimistic.”
Pinto told Deadline that after reading Abedin’s memoir she and her team were “stunned by her candor, generosity, warmth, intelligence, and the way that her childhood, faith and family have so authentically woven through her whole life.” She added that Abedin’s story “is both extraordinary and immediately relatable, timely and relevant to so many of us.” She and Abedin were recently seen together on the red carpet at the premiere of Pinto’s new movie “Mr. Malcolm’s List” in Los Angeles.
Abedin made headlines this week over reports that she is in a relationship with Bradley Cooper. The two were introduced by Vogue editor Anna Wintour, “who is close with both of them,” Page Six reported. According to the report, “the high-profile pair arrived together at the Met Gala on May 2 and then split up for the red carpet.” Abedin, 46, wore a canary-yellow gown.
The New York Post also reported that in June, Abedin put her East Hampton pad up for rent at $35,000 per month — only a couple of months after she started dating Cooper. Where she’d be moving is anybody’s guess.
The news comes a few weeks after Abedin confessed to “gradually moving on.” She was speaking to The Guardia on the sidelines of the Jaipur Literary Festival in Soneva Fushi in the Maldives, in May. She told the British paper that she finds dating apps intimidating. “I’m trying to stay open, but dating is terrifying, which also makes it exciting,” she said. “ I believe in love – I had it, I know what it felt like, I’d love to have that feeling again.”
Almost five years after Weiner’s sexting scandal broke out, the couple is in the final stages of the divorce. This February, Weiner told the New York Post that their divorce is “all but finalized, and is on paper. “Now we just have to wait for the court system to catch up with us.”
Abedin first filed for divorce in 2017, though later withdrew the case so their lawyers could negotiate out of the public eye, as the couple continued to live in the same East Village building. The COVID-19 pandemic further delayed the legal separation.