- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
The woman at the center of a sexting scandal involving New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner is sharing the details of her relationship with the ex-Congressman.
On Friday, Inside Edition will air an interview with 23-year-old Sydney Leathers, who says she was involved with Weiner starting July 2012 and ending November 2012. Leathers says she and Weiner engaged in phone sex twice a week and exchanged explicit messages.
STORY: Lena Dunham Takes Sides Against Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner in NY Elections
“Anthony Weiner is responsible for his downfall,” said Leathers in the interview.”I feel sick about it. I’m disgusted by him. He is not who I thought he was.”
Leathers said she contacted Weiner over Facebook in June 2011, after he resigned from Congress for sending explicit photos of himself to women online. She said she sent him a message to criticize his behavior and heard nothing until a year later, when he responded with a Facebook poke. After that, she said Weiner soon began sending intimate messages.
“I’ve found the perfect woman. Gorgeous, sexy and like a bit of crazy,” he allegedly wrote in one. She responded with: “I basically worship the ground you walk on. You’re incredible.”
In a preview clip, Inside Edition’s Jim Moret asks Leathers about a report Weiner referred to himself as a “dirty old man.”
“He actually said that about himself to me. The exact wording was that he’s an ‘argumentative, perpetually horny middle-aged man.’ And at the time, I was like, ‘Oh no, you’re not.’ But yes, he is.”
PHOTOS: The Top 10 Celebrity Political Twitter Commentators
In an email to supporters Wednesday, Weiner said he would not drop out of the race, despite the scandal.
“Before and after announcing my run for mayor, I repeatedly answered every question about these mistakes,” Weiner wrote. “I was clear that these relationships took place over an extended period of time with more than one person. I regret not saying explicitly when these exchanges happened. But the bottom line is that the ‘news’ today is about my past life.”
He announced his mayoral bid and returned to Twitter in May. Weeks earlier, he spoke with The New York Times Magazine about being tempted by social media and accidentally sending the tweet that brought down his congressional career and threatened his marriage to his wife, Huma Abedin.
“I knew when I did it, almost from the moment I did it, there was no good way for it to end. When I sent that fateful tweet.”
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day