ABC News' Melissa Lustrin reports:

In what could be the ultimate "stand by your man" moment, Huma Abedin, close aide to Hillary Clinton and wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, says she wants the husband she loves to be mayor of New York, despite the latest revelations about his sexting.

"People are shocked she is digging in," and telling her, "this is no longer a good idea," a source inside Abedin's circle of friends told ABC News.

Indeed, Abedin's comments ignited a firestorm on Twitter with countless women expressing both outrage and curiosity about why Abedin has chosen to forgive Weiner.

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"Powerful women in particular take their men back because they know it's hard to find a man who is not going to do something that is going to disappoint, and they want to keep their families stable," marriage and family therapist Karen Ruskin of Sharon, Mass., said.

Abedin, 36, has admitted in the past that she sought relationship advice from longtime friend and boss Hillary Clinton, a woman who knows a thing or two about public scandal. And while Abedin won't divulge the conversations, some people can't help but wonder whether her reasons for staying are politically motivated.

"It was as if she was saying to voters, 'I'm the one who'd be most hurt by this, and I've gotten past it, so maybe you should, too,'" Washington Post reporter Jackie Kucinich said.

So she continues to play the role of "the good wife," which happens to be the title of her essay scheduled to appear in Harper's Bazaar's September issue. The woman who admittedly once kept her private life private, is going very public.

"Anthony's made some horrible mistakes, but I do strongly believe that that is between us and our marriage," Abedin said Tuesday in a rare public appearance, not just standing alongside, but speaking out in defense of her husband at a news conference where the disgraced congressman acknowledged inappropriate texting after he resigned in 20011.

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"I had said that other photos and texts were likely to come out and today they have," Weiner, 48, said.

Weiner, who is running for mayor of New York City and vows to stay in the race, called the news conference in response to a gossip website's posting of texts he allegedly shared with a 22-year-old woman. The messages were leaked online Monday, but were apparently sent months ago, after Weiner had left Congress in the wake of the initial revelations.

The screenshots of the messages that are alleged to be from Weiner date back to August. But Abedin says the scandal that ended his congressional career doesn't need to end his run for mayor.

"I made the decision that it was worth staying in this marriage," Abedin said Tuesday. "That was a decision I made for me, for our son and for our family … I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and as we have said from the beginning, we are moving forward."