The escalating personal feud between US Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz over their spouses has drawn criticism from a top lawmaker.
"Talk about things that people really care about, and knock this crap off because these are serious times, and you're not behaving like you want to be president of the United States," Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who supports Cruz, said on Thursday on NBC's Today show.
Earlier this week, an anti-Trump Super PAC, Make America Awesome, published an ad featuring a photo of Trump's wife Melania lounging nude.
Trump in reply threatened to "spill the beans" on Cruz's wife.
But Cruz denies anything to do with it and tweeted: "Donald, real men don't attack women. Your wife is lovely, and Heidi is the love of my life."
Republican frontrunner Trump won Arizona and Cruz took Utah in the latest state primary contests.
Attacking another candidate's wife carries political risk.
Half of US women say they have a "very unfavourable" view of Trump, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling in March.
Cruz fared better, with 24 per cent of the 5000 women surveyed saying they had a "very unfavourable" view of him.
The Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton, did worse than Cruz but better than Trump, with 36 per cent of women polled saying they had a "very unfavourable" view of her.
After Tuesday's contests, Trump has 739 of the 1237 delegates needed to win the nomination, according to The Associated Press.
Cruz had 465 and Ohio Governor John Kasich, who has only won his home state, has 143.
Republican candidates are looking for endorsements from the dozen or so candidates who have dropped out of the race ahead of the convention in Cleveland in July.
On Wednesday, Cruz won the backing of former rival Jeb Bush.
The next Republican contests are on April 5 in Wisconsin and on April 9 in Wyoming.
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