Former House Speaker John Boehner can be heard telling Ted Cruz to 'go f--- yourself' in an audiobook recording, report says

• John Boehner went off script while recording the audiobook of his new memoir, Axios reported.
• In one session, the former House speaker reportedly called out Ted Cruz, saying, "Go f--- yourself."
• Cruz was recently vilified for flying to Cancún as a winter storm swept his home state of Texas.

Former House Speaker John Boehner went off script while recording the audiobook of his upcoming memoir and could be heard telling Sen. Ted Cruz to "go f--- yourself," Axios reported.

Boehner's memoir, "On the House: A Washington Memoir," scheduled to be released in April, chronicles his time as Republican Party representative and House speaker from 2011 to 2015.

The audiobook also contains Boehner's off-script commentary. In one recent recording session, Axios reported, Boehner stopped reading from the book and said, "Oh, and Ted Cruz, go f---- yourself."

The context and date of the remark were unclear. But Cruz has recently been criticized over his decision to take his family on vacation to Cancún, Mexico, while millions of people in his home state of Texas lost power or water during a winter storm.

Cruz initially claimed that he was going to Cancún only to drop off his family and was to fly home immediately. When he returned, he said he regretted the decision.

On Thursday, Boehner tweeted a photo of himself in a recording studio holding a glass of wine. "Poured myself a glass of something nice to read my audiobook," he said. "You can blame the wine for the expletives."

David Schnittger, a spokesman for Boehner, told Axios: "I can confirm there were some off-script moments during his recording of the audiobook."

Schnittger added: "He pretty much just let it fly, as he did when he was working on the book itself. He's not really interested in being anything other than himself these days. That is kind of the spirit of the entire project."

Cruz did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. But he alluded to the report in a Friday appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, saying: "You know yesterday, John Boehner made some news. He suggested that I do something that is anatomically impossible. To which my response was: Who's John Boehner?" according to CNN's Eric Bradner and CBS News' Caitlin Huey-Burns.

Boehner and Cruz have a long and fractious relationship, with Cruz often claiming not to know Boehner.

During a speech at Stanford University in April 2016, Boehner called Cruz "Lucifer in the flesh."

"I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a b---- in my life," Boehner said at the time.

Cruz responded that he and Boehner had never worked together. "If I had said 50 words to John Boehner in my life, I would be surprised," Cruz told NBC News.

However, Cruz and Boehner have known each other since 1998.

Cruz, once a lawyer, represented Boehner in court as Boehner sued Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott, accusing him of leaking the recording of a sensitive phone call.

The relationship ended there, and Boehner did not seek out Cruz after he joined Congress in 2013, NBC News said.