Ted Cruz blamed presidential rival Donald Trump on Friday for a tabloid story that aired rumors about Cruz's personal life. Trump responded that he had nothing to do with it. Photo: AP

TEXAS senator Ted Cruz is embroiled in a sex scandal befitting the bizarre nature of the current the Republican race for the presidential nomination.

An angry Cruz has accused “Donald Trump and his henchmen” of feeding the National Enquirer a salacious story claiming the conservative Christian politician has had extramarital affairs with five different women.

“This National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies,” Cruz snapped after a campaign stop in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Friday.

“It is a tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen.”

The supermarket tabloid did not identify them by name, but published pixelated headshots of the women with black bars across their eyes.

The women were described as a hooker, a teacher, and co-workers.

Cruz also took to Facebook this morning to slam the allegations.

“These smears are completely false, they’re offensive to Heidi and me, they’re offensive to our daughters, and they’re offensive to everyone Donald continues to personally attack,” he posted.

“Donald Trump’s consistently disgraceful behaviour is beneath the office we are seeking and we are not going to follow.”

Despite his efforts the squash the story, the hashtag #CruzSexScandal has been the top trending hashtag on Twitter this morning, adding to the candidate’s woes.

Over half a million tweets about the #CruzSexScandal. Just getting started — TrumpTrain (@TrumpTrain8) March 25, 2016

Is #CruzSexScandal trying to break Twitter ?? — Tim Rinehart (@godfathertr1) March 25, 2016

TrusTED just turned into BusTED. #Cruzsexscandal — MATTY ICE (@MattyIceAZ) March 25, 2016

Very revealing that 7 senior members of @tedcruz 's campaign resigned as the #CruzSexScandal broke. pic.twitter.com/JyiiPSY6rR — Bradley Stein (@_BradleyStein_) March 25, 2016

Trump later posted a response on Facebook denying he had anything to do with the story — saying he had not even read it.

“I have no idea whether or not the cover story about Ted Cruz in this week’s issue of the National Enquirer is true or not, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it, did not know about it, and have not, as yet, read it,” he wrote.

“Likewise, I have nothing to do with the National Enquirer and unlike Lyin’ Ted Cruz I do not surround myself with political hacks and henchman and then pretend total innocence.”

But he then noted that the National Enquirer accurately reported about former presidential candidate John Edward’s affair, adding “ I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin’ Ted Cruz.”

Meanwhile an article published by the Daily Beast over night claims the article was peddled by allies of Marco Rubio who recently dropped out of the Republican race after losing in his home state of Florida.

Media reports identified one of the women named in the National Enquirer article as Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, who earlier worked for Cruz.

She denied the charge on Twitter, but suggested Cruz could have tumbled with the other women in the article.

“Of course the National Enquirer story is 100% FALSE!!! I only speak to myself, however,” she wrote.

Ms Pierson has garnered the spotlight on a number of occasions during the presidential race for her choice of jewellery and incendiary remarks on abortion.

Earlier Friday on CNN, Adriana Cohen of the Boston Herald, a Trump supporter, accused Cruz communications director Amanda Carpenter of being one of the women.

Carpenter was on the air when Cohen made the accusation.

Carpenter retorted that the story was “tabloid trash” and slammed Cohen for sliming her.

“You should be ashamed for spreading this smut,” Carpenter said. “Donald Trump supporters should be held to account for it.”

The GOP presidential race became unusually personal this week after an anti-Trump group posted a campaign ad with near-nude photos of Trump’s wife, Melania, taken from a 2000 photo shoot for British GQ.

Trump accused Cruz of having a role in the ad, which he denied.