(CNN) - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had no advance knowledge that her longtime friend and adviser, Huma Abedin, would speak out on behalf of her husband, Anthony Weiner, according to two sources with knowledge.
"She didn't know before she saw it on TV," one source said. Said another, "Hillary Clinton was not involved."
Weiner held a press conference Tuesday, admitting that he had continued to have lewd chats with young women after he resigned from Congress for sexting in 2011.
Abedin not only stood by his side at the hastily arranged press conference, but spoke on his behalf, urging voters to support him in his campaign for New York City mayor.
"What I want to say is, I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and as I have said from the beginning, we are moving forward," Abedin said at the event.
A longtime aide to Clinton, Abedin began working for her as a White House intern in 1996 and eventually became the former first lady's traveling chief of staff - or "body man" - during her campaign for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
When Clinton became secretary of state, Abedin served as a top aide. She remains an informal Clinton adviser.
"I have one daughter. But if I had a second daughter, it would [be] Huma," Clinton said around the time Abedin married Weiner.
The Clintons have declined to weigh in on the mayoral race.