Sydney Leathers claims Anthony Weiner said he loves her and even asked for her advice before running for mayor.
In her first public statements, the 23-year-old Indiana woman at the center of the New York City mayoral candidate’s scandal said the two started their relationship after Weiner resigned from Congress.
Weiner admitted Tuesday that he had engaged in a series of sexually charged online chats, keeping up online relationships with a number of women and even sending naked pictures. This came after his 2011 resignation from Congress for a nearly identical scandal.
The woman identified as one of those partners, Sydney Leathers, gave an interview to Inside Edition set to air on Thursday and Friday. In it, she says the relationship was more than just online flirting .
“Did he tell you he loved you?” asked interviewer Jim Moret.
“Yes,” Sydney Leathers answered.
She went on to compare their relationship to two characters from the Netflix series House Of Cards.
“I feel like I’m in a real life House Of Cards,” Leathers said. “He is the Frank Underwood of House Of Cards. I see Anthony as Frank Underwood, and myself as a Zoe.”
The scandal seems to have sunk Anthony Weiner’s attempt at a political comeback. His standing in the Democratic primary for mayor fell sharply in the latest polls, and he now trails City Council Speaker Christine Quinn by nine percentage points.
Weiner has also become the butt of jokes thanks to the online pseudonym he used while engaging in the trysts — Carlos Danger. The fake-sounding name has led to a slew of jokes on Twitter and even a Carlos Danger name generator .
The scandal was broken by the gossip site The Dirty, which originally kept the identity of Sydney Leathers confidential. But TMZ uncovered the identity of the 23-year-old and obtained photos she sent to Weiner in July 2012.
Sydney Leathers said they traded more than 30 explicit photos, including many requests for pictures of her heels. She said they also talked on the phone regularly.