MELBOURNE, Australia — The partner of Australia’s former deputy prime minister has said that she was pressured by members of the conservative National Party to have an abortion after she became pregnant during their extramarital affair.

The assertion was made during a prime-time television interview Sunday, and represented a new twist in a scandal that has embarrassed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s coalition government.

“They came to me and they said, ‘You’re pregnant and you have to get an abortion,’” Vikki Campion told Channel 7’s “Sunday Night” in her first joint interview with Barnaby Joyce, who was forced to step down from his role as deputy prime minister after the local news media revealed their affair. “And they said, ‘If you don’t, they’re gonna come after you,’” she continued.

Earlier in the interview, Ms. Campion said she came close to terminating her pregnancy. She gave birth to their son, Sebastian, in April.