The woman who said Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker paid for her 2009 abortion, sparking a controversy that rocked his campaign, told The New York Times that the Republican candidate asked her to terminate a second pregnancy two years later.   

  She refused the request and their relationship ended, he told the Times, which said they were withholding the woman’s name.  Walker was single at the time.  Their son, he said, is now 10 years old.   

  Walker, who said in May that he supports a blanket ban on abortion with no exceptions, denied an earlier report by The Daily Beast in which the woman initially alleged that the former football star compensated her for an abortion she sought after being urged to do so. of.   

  Speaking to the Times, the woman said she decided to come forward with new details about her relationship with Walker after his Republican allies rallied around him after the first report.   

  The Times said interviews conducted with the woman and documents provided to the paper “together confirm and expand on an account of her abortion first reported Monday in The Daily Beast.  The Times also independently confirmed details of custody records filed in New York family court and interviewed a friend of the woman to whom she had described the abortion and eventual separation from Mr. Walker as those events.”   

  CNN has not independently confirmed the woman’s claim about the abortion or that Walker urged her to terminate a second pregnancy.   

  CNN has reached out to the Walker campaign for comment.  The Times left messages Friday afternoon with Walker’s spokesman and campaign manager.   

  Walker vehemently denied the original report of the abortion payment to the Daily Beast, in the “strongest words” and said it was an “absolute lie.”   

  In comments to NBC News on Friday, Herschel Walker appeared to confirm that he knows the identity of the woman he claimed he paid for an abortion.  However, he continued to deny knowledge of the process.   

  “She’s been mad at me for years and it’s very difficult,” he told NBC, in a brief interview the agency said.   

  “The first I learned about all this was when a journalist asked me about an abortion.  And I say, “No, that’s a lie.”  And then they asked me if I paid for an abortion and I said “No.  I didn’t pay for an abortion,” Walker also told NBC.  “I’m not saying he had or didn’t have one [an abortion].  I say I know nothing about it.  I do not know.”   

  “I have nothing to hide. That’s why I’m talking to you,” Walker said in the report.   

  The Georgia race between Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is among the most competitive Senate contests in the 2022 midterms and could be decisive for control of the evenly divided division.  Walker, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, won the GOP nomination in May despite concerns from some Republicans about past allegations that he threatened women with violence.  Walker has denied at least one of those allegations and has spoken publicly and written about his struggles with mental illness.   

  With the stakes so high, Republican groups have vowed not to abandon Walker even as the scandal sent his campaign into a tailspin.  Campaign manager Scott Paradise, speaking to staff earlier this week, acknowledged that the Daily Beast’s original report was a setback, but pointed to Trump’s 2016 victory — despite initial backlash over the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in which spoke bluntly.  groping women – as evidence that Walker remained a viable candidate.   

  Warnock has largely refused to address the claim, dodging a question about its implications earlier this week.   

  “I’ll let the experts decide how they think it will affect the race,” the senator said, before turning to his broader message on abortion rights.  “But I have been consistent in my view that a patient’s room is too narrow and confined for a woman, her doctor and the government.  … And my opponent, on the other hand, is talking about a nationwide ban without exceptions.”   

  The Times, as well as The Daily Beast, reported that Walker gave the woman a $700 check for the procedure, which took place at a clinic in Atlanta.  According to both outlets, Walker sent the woman a “get well” note.   

  Earlier Friday, Walker’s campaign parted ways with its political director, Taylor Crowe, over suspicions that he was leaking information to the media, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.  Crowe did not respond to multiple requests for comment from CNN.  It is unclear if other factors were at play or if the move had anything to do with the abortion allegations.   

  Although Walker’s campaign remains otherwise intact and his support from national Republicans has remained in place, one of his sons, Christian Walker, 23, a conservative social media influencer, has turned against him .   

  “Every member of Herschel Walker’s family asked him not to run, because we all knew (some of) his past.  Every one.  He decided to give us the middle finger and air all his dirty laundry in public while lying about it,” Christian Walker wrote shortly after the Daily Beast report was published on Monday, the first in a series of posts denouncing him his father.  .  “I’m done.”   

  Walker dismissed that criticism, saying at a press conference Thursday of his grown son, “He’s a wonderful little man.  I love him to death.  And you know what, I will always love him, no matter what my son says.”   

  Christian Walker has not responded to emails and social media messages from CNN seeking comment on his criticism of his father.