• A spokeswoman for Weiner has admitted he had a 'personal relationship'
• Dozens of former staff claim the relationship took place over several years
• They described it as a 'badly kept open secret' that began before 2006
  
• But the aide in question Dolev Azaria issued an outright denial yesterday

By Stuart Woledge

PUBLISHED: 04:22 EST, 16 August 2013 | UPDATED: 07:59 EST, 16 August 2013

Embattled New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner had a relationship with an aide 18 years his junior stretching over several years, according to his office.

Barbara Morgan, a spokeswoman for the former congressman, admitted that Mr Weiner and Dolev Azaria had a 'personal relationship' in a phone call to The New York Observer's editor-in-chief.

She then stopped mid-sentence and asked that the rest of the conversation be continued off the record.

However, in an attempt to bring the matter to an end, Ms Azaria sent a letter to the New York Observer yesterday through her lawyer in which she 'vehemently denies' the couple had a relationship.

In a further statement last night, Ms Azaria added: 'Anthony was my boss and a mentor and we remain friends to this day.

'There was never anything inappropriate about our relationship. I’m saddened that rumors to the contrary would imply anything else.'

About a dozen sources who worked in Mr Weiner's office at the time have said this was not the case, according to Politicker.

They have described a relationship between the pair as a badly-kept open secret that began long before Ms Azaria left Mr Weiner's payroll in 2006, and continuing when she returned in mid-2008.

One former ex-aide, who wished to remain anonymous, said: 'You’d have to be an idiot to not know what was going on.'

Another said: 'It was a known secret in the office.'

A third well-connected source added they were '100 per cent' sure there was something going on between the two.

The way Mr Weiner behaved around Ms Azaria was in stark contrast to the way he behaved around other staff, the sources added.

They claim the behavior continued in 2008, when Mr Weiner, now 48, began dating his current wife, Huma Abedin.

Azaria earned $125,202 with Weiner during the 2010 campaign cycle and she earned $86,652 in the 2012 cycle  according to OpenSecrets.org.

While relationships between staffers and their bosses are not unheard of, the revelation throws into doubt Mr Weiner's previous claim that his personal relationships were completely constrained to his private life.

For instance, one of the sources reported the pair coming and going together at all hours, even when Mr Weiner was running his campaign office from his apartment.

The New York Daily News described the pair at a late-night party together with comedian Jon Stewart and Leonardo DiCaprio following the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

'Hours after the final gavel ended the Democratic National Convention in Boston, Jon Stewart and Leonardo DiCaprio still huddled at the Roxy with New York Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn & Queens) and his finance aide, Dolev Azaria,' the article read.  'They stayed until the wee hours Friday.'

Phone conversations between the pair, overheard by other members of the team, were said to have gone beyond professional boundaries.

When one person started at the office they were warned not to say anything negative in front of Ms Azaria because it would get back to Mr Weiner.

Another described suspicious holes in Mr Weiner’s schedule when the two would turn up together.

A third pointed out Ms Asaria used a holiday photo of them together as her screensaver.

Ms Azaria first started working for Mr Weiner’s Congressional office on a part-time basis in 2001, according to Congressional records obtained through LegiStorm.

The following year she moved next door to Mr Weiner in his Sheepshead Bay building, campaign finance records show.

She was steadily promoted over the next three years, eventually working on Mr Weiner’s congressional and mayoral campaigns. Here salary in 2002 was $26,833.32 and the following year, she earned $29,000.

Her swift rise through the ranks earned Ms Azaria a mention in New York Magazine.

In 2005, an article listed her as someone who had potential to become famous. The article read: 'Two years ago, Congressman Anthony Weiner tapped Azaria to be his campaign-finance director; she oversaw a staff of six, some of whom were PhDs 15 years her senior.

'Now she’s launching her own political-consultancy firm.'

In a follow-up article in 2010, New York Magazine reported: 'Azaria is still helping raise money for Anthony Weiner, just like she was five years ago. But now she has a healthy collection of other Democrats in her stable — Sean Maloney, John Sabini, David Yassky, Anthony Weiner, and Mike McMahon. She says she’s angling to get more involved in the nonprofit sector in the near future. “I remain strongly dedicated to supporting people whose ideology I believe in and whose career I want to further, but I also remain committed to giving back to the larger community and to people in need throughout the world.”'

Ms Azaria left Weiner's payroll in October 2006 and returned in June 2008.

But questions arose over why she was paid for three months after Mr Weiner was embroiled in the sexting scandal that forced him to resign in June, 2011. He had admitted to sending lewd pictures to a college student.

As Ron Brynaert, the former executive editor at The Raw Story, wrote in a blog last year, Ms Azaria received an increase in pay from $6,318 to $8,500 for those three post-resignation months - a rise of nearly 35 percent.

The Weiner campaign attributed it to a bookkeeping anomaly caused by the fact Ms Azaria was the last person on his staff and was responsible for closing the office down.

Ms Morgan described Ms Dolev as one of Mr Weiner's most 'skillfull' employers and said their relationship was 'appropriate at all times'.