Sex scandal, pregnancy tests US lawmaker's wife

New York: Huma Abedin helped then-first lady Hillary Clinton weather the storm surrounding President Bill Clinton's affair with a White House intern. Abedin is in the centre of a storm herself, with the disclosure of her congressman-husband's online sex antics.

Abedin still works for Hillary Clinton and is travelling overseas with the US secretary of state as the scandal involving her husband, Anthony Weiner, continues to dominate US news.

While she has tried to stay out of the spotlight, the latest disclosure puts her in the public eye: She is pregnant. It was the latest twist in a series of eye-popping revelations surrounding Weiner, a Democrat from New York, and the sex scandal that could force the onetime rising political star to resign from Congress.

A spokeswoman on Thursday confirmed that he had sent explicit photographs to women, as an X-rated photo Weiner purportedly took of himself made its way around several online gossip sites.

Sources close to Weiner and Abedin on Thursday disclosed that the couple is expecting a child, their first. Philippe Reines, a State Department spokesman and Abedin friend, had no comment.

Abedin has no plans to speak publicly about her husband's troubles. Friends describe Abedin as more saddened than angry over her husband's behaviour, and she plans to try to help him, even though she believes he has a lot of work to do to redeem himself.

"She is a very strong woman," Reines said. The unfolding saga has cast an unwanted glare on the glamorous Abedin, one of the most private members of Clinton's intensely loyal team of advisers.

Starting work as an intern for Clinton in 1996, Abedin helped the then-first lady amid the scandal surrounding Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and his impeachment in 1998 by Congress.

But the roles have shifted, and it's now Clinton's turn to offer solace to Abedin. Abedin was with Weiner in New York following his news conference on Monday in which he acknowledged sending inappropriate texts and photos to several women over about three years and publicly apologised to her for the pain he had caused.

"I love my wife very much, and we have no intention of splitting up over this," Weiner said through tears.