AP Photo/John MinchilloAnthony Weiner's bad behavior didn't just expose itself.
"This girl actually submitted to TheDirty.com, and she asked for help," the site's founder, Nik Richie, exclusively tells E! News in his first interview since The Dirty broke the news that the scandal-tarnished Weiner continued to send sexual messages to other women after resigning from Congress in 2011.
With wife Huma Abedin by his side, Weiner publicly apologized yesterday for his actions (his second round of actions, that is) and vowed to remain in the New York City mayoral race.
Richie tells us that he gets anonymous tips all the time, so he wanted to ensure that this tipster was for real.
"I took the weekend to talk to her. I really drilled her," he says of the as-yet unidentified woman who claims that Weiner and she had numerous sexual exchanges, with the disgraced politico using the online name "Carlos Danger."
"I asked for as much detail as possible and I just kind of connected the dots," Richie tells us. "She's my source, I promised her that I wouldn't out her. Eventually it'll probably come out, I think she's going to come forward soon.
"She's, you know, from middle America, she's a college student...She's a young girl, she was 22 when this happened, she was very naïve, she really thought she was in love...They were having phone sex, I would probably say, once a day."
Asked if he knew why the cyber-relationship appeared to end in November 2012, Richie says the woman told him that "it just fizzled out."
But the gossip-slinger insists that the young woman isn't trying to make a name for herself.
"She doesn't want the fame," Richie says. "It's not really about the money with her, it's more of a safety concern."
Judging by yesterday's press conference, Weiner isn't looking to clear his name so much as not make it any dirtier than it already is.
"I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have," the Brooklyn-born politician stated Tuesday. "As I have said in the past, these things that I did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through challenges in our marriage that extended past my resignation from Congress.
"While some things that have been posted today are true and some are not, there is no question that what I did was wrong. This behavior is behind me."
Abedin also read a statement to the press, saying, "I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and, as we have said from the beginning, we are moving forward."
For more of our exclusive interview with Nik Richie, tune into E! News tonight at 7 p.m. & 11:30 p.m.