New York Post

Maybe you shoulda kept runnin’, Huma

- Daniel Halper, Bob Fredericks

Huma Abedin bolted on Anthony Weiner on their first meeting — and likely would have spared herself years of heartache if she followed her instincts instead of marrying the serial sexter.

The pair first met on Martha’s Vineyard at a Democratic National Committee shindig in 2001.

“It didn’t go so well,” Abedin, 40, told Vogue magazine in an interview released Wednesday.

“A friend of mine came up to me and said, ‘He’d like to meet you.’ I was working. My mind wasn’t even there. He came over, he said hello, and, honestly, that was the end of it.”

A bit later, a group was getting ready to go out for drinks, and Weiner asked her to join them.

“I ordered tea, and then left to use the ladies’ room, and then never came back. That was our first meeting,” she recalled.

But Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s top aide and closest confidante, said she kept running into then-Congressma­n Weiner in New York and Washington.

The relationsh­ip gradually blossomed and the couple was married in 2010. It wasn’t Weiner’s looks that hooked her.

“One of the things that, because we became friendly, I found striking about Anthony was how smart he was, what a great debater he was. He was smart, he was passionate,” Abedin said.

“When he wanted to do something that he thought was the right thing to do, he would not give up. The kind of dedication and passion he had for helping people, I found very attractive and inspiring.”

Weiner, 51, later demonstrat­ed that same persistenc­e during a string of sexting scandals that humiliated Abedin but didn’t seem to faze the congressma­n.

Abedin told Vogue it was her Muslim faith that helped her get through the darkest days of her marriage.

“I tried to block out all the noise and move on with my life” and relied on a “really supportive group of friends and colleagues” when the scandals broke — adding that her son, Jordan, 4, also helped her pull through.

“I know Anthony has said this before, but Jordan was the best thing that happened to either of us,” she added.

“Our primary concern was the well-being of our son.”

 ??  ?? WORST IMPRESSION­S: Huma Abedin has revealed that after the first time she met Anthony Weiner, she went to “the ladies’ room, and then never came back,” Perhaps her initial instincts were right.
WORST IMPRESSION­S: Huma Abedin has revealed that after the first time she met Anthony Weiner, she went to “the ladies’ room, and then never came back,” Perhaps her initial instincts were right.

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