Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner’s road to divorce will be more public than the New York political couple might like. At an initial hearing in the Manhattan Supreme Court last week, Abedin’s attorney Amy Donehower requested “to keep these proceedings secret to the extent your honor will allow” on behalf of the “child involved.” Their son, Jordan, is 5 years old. The case would be called Anonymous vs. Anonymous, making it nearly impossible to search in public records, but Justice Michael Katz has denied them their request, per Page Six. (Vanity Fair has reached out to Donehower for comment.)
Judge Katz offered a little insight to Abedin, Weiner, and their representation at the initial hearing, saying, “I appreciate the parties’ request to keep this as quiet as possible, but as a practical matter, it does not appear to me that despite your attempt to have this be anonymous, it’s particularly anonymous.” Both parties entered and left the court in a flurry of photographers and reporters that day.
Their divorce is a compelling one for the public no matter how private it may wind up being. Abedin rose to the public consciousness as Hillary Clinton’s right-hand woman, while Weiner slowly dismantled his own political career as first a Congressman, and then would-be mayor, after a series of texting scandals. Not only do the lurid details have all the worst components of a sex scandal—photo evidence, shamefaced press conferences, an underage victim—but Abedin’s story mirrors that of her well-known boss: two powerful women in politics tripped up by their philandering husbands. (When Weiner’s criminal investigation prompted the infamous “Comey letter“ on October 28, the two sagas became intertwined in a way that changed the course of American history. All over a sext.)
The divorce is moving through civil courts at the same time that Weiner is facing sentencing for his sexting trial. (He pleaded guilty to sending obscene material to a minor in May and faces up to 10 years in prison. Now there’s little stopping new developments in the dissolution of their marriage from making it into the New York tabloids that continue to cover their every move.
