Hillary Clinton’s Aide Huma Abedin Reveals the Personal and Political Repercussions of Her Husband’s Sexting Scandal
- In her upcoming memoir, the daughter of Indian and Pakistani scholars and estranged wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), shares the story of her pregnancy and how her boss’ kindness helped her.
In her memoir, “Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds,” coming out on Nov. 2, Huma Abedin, the close aide to Hillary Clinton and estranged wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.), shares stories of her family, legacy, identity, faith, marriage, and motherhood. She reveals the repercussions her ex-husband’s sexting scandal had both on her personal and political life.
In an excerpt from the book, shared by People magazine, Abedin recalls the “painful moment” Weiner “came clean,” calling his decision “infuriating, deeply inappropriate, juvenile, crass, and stupid.” At the time, Abedin, the daughter of Indian and Pakistani scholars, worked as then-Secretary of State Clinton’s chief of staff.
In May 2011, Abedin got pregnant, “a sweet secret” she and Weiner shared, according to People. It was during that time that Weiner told Abedin that his Twitter account had been hacked. “Someone posted a photo,” he told her. “There might be a story, but I am working on fixing the problem. Nothing for you to worry about.”
While Weiner kept defending his lie, Abedin buried herself in work, she writes. She also kept assuring her boss, Clinton, that nothing was wrong, “and that Anthony’s team hoped to discover the perpetrator soon.”
They were at a friend’s place when Weiner confessed that he had sent the photo and had lied about it. “Just like that, life as I knew it was officially over,” she writes, according to People. “I felt something explode inside my chest, and suddenly it was hard to breathe,” she writes. “I was simultaneously filled with rage and stunned to my core. It felt like a bolt of lightning had struck me and run straight through my body.” But in the moment she insisted Weiner start telling the truth to everyone else, she writes.
And as Weiner and his team set up a press conference, she walked out to the deck overlooking the pond. “I breathed in the warm air as I looked out at the placid water, every fiber in my body screaming: What is happening to my life? The shock, the fury traveling through each cell of my body, was more for my child than for myself.”
While Abedin tried to ignore the news coverage of the scandal, the news of her pregnancy leaked. She writes about Clinton’s press advisor Philippe Reines telling her that The New York Times was preparing to report that she was pregnant. “I felt the heat rise in me as I struggled to keep calm,” she writes. “This was my body, my special secret. Isn’t this what women get to do? Isn’t this a rite of passage that people are entitled to?”
According to the People report, Abedin still feels the trauma of not being able to share the news of her pregnancy the way she wanted to. “Everything else was awful, but this was something else—my once-in-a-lifetime gift,” she writes. “A full decade later there are many days when I am in the shower or cooking dinner or browsing in a shop, and I hear the words ‘I am pregnant’ emerge from my lips, without any conscious intention, as though my brain is reminding me I never got to say it when it mattered most to me.”
It was during this time that Abedin found comfort in Clinton and her kindness. In June 2011, Abedin was to accompany Clinton on a trip to the United Arab Emirates. A day before they were to depart, Abedin writes about her meeting with Clinton. When she “offered her careful congratulations” on her pregnancy, Abedin broke down, the People report said, citing the book. Abedin writes how Clinton “walked me over to the window seat, sat with me, rubbing my back, trying to reassure me, telling me over and over again that it was going to be okay.”
Although Clinton gave Abedin the option of not going on the trip due to her pregnancy, Abedin chose to go. By the time they reached the UAE, “the pregnancy news had broken,” she writes. Although the “trip was business as usual,” she was “no longer anyone usual. I was now the thing in the room that everyone avoided talking about.” Abedin writes about how she feared “causing awkwardness for her boss during meetings with their foreign hosts.” But, Clinton was different. “At a moment when any other politician might have disappeared her embarrassing staffer, HRC signaled to the entire world that she wasn’t ashamed of me.” Clinton also surprised her by inviting her mother and her brother to the hotel they were staying at.
Clinton and Abedin always shared a close relationship. Clinton has always spoken fondly of Abedin and referred to her as a second daughter. Former President Bill Clinton officiated at her 2010 wedding to Weiner.
Abedin was first introduced to Clinton as a student at George Washington University when she worked as an intern in 1996 for the then-first lady. She was an aide to Clinton during Clinton’s successful run for the U.S. Senate in 2000; deputy chief of staff during Clinton’s years as secretary of state in the first term of the Obama administration, 2009-2013; and a top adviser during the 2016 election, when Clinton lost in a stunning upset to Republican Donald Trump. She currently serves as Clinton’s chief of staff.
In her political memoir, “What Happened” which was released in September 2017, Clinton says Abedin would have been her chief of staff, had she made it to the White House. There are several references to Abedin in her book.