Watch Ted Cruz elbow wife Heidi in the face after dropping out of GOP presidential race

It could not have been a worse night for Ted Cruz. The Republican presidential hopeful dropped out of the race after a heavy defeat at the Indiana primary to his rival Donald Trump, telling supporters in Indianapolis that he "will be suspending his campaign".

To make matters even worse, video footage has gone viral of the moment after the announcement, the 45-year-old Texas senator accidentally elbows his wife Heidi in the face whilst hugging his father Rafael Cruz. Immediately afterwards, Cruz tries to rectify the mistake by including both his wife and father in a group hug on stage.

The crucial primary had been fraught with conflict between Trump and Cruz, the two leading Republican candidates.

The GOP frontrunner appeared to link Cruz's father to John F Kennedy's killing by accusing him months earlier of being in a photo with assassin Lee Harvey Oswald — based on a story from the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer. In response a furious Ted Cruz called Trump a "pathological liar" and "utterly amoral".

By the end of the night with nearly 96% of the tally counted, Trump had 53.2% of the vote to Cruz's 36.7%. Ted Cruz's suspension of his campaign all but assures that his rival Donald Trump will become the Republican contender in the general election for US president.