"I would like to say at the outset that Mr McGuire was a colleague of 15 years;he was someone that I trusted ... and that developed into a close personal relationship,"she said.
The Premier said she kept their relationship a secret because she is a"very private person".
"We were close."It also emerged that Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire shared a private relationship during the time he was the MP for Wagga Wagga.
Mr Maguire wasforced to quit NSW Parliament in July 2018 after a corruption inquiry exposed his attempts to broker property deals and seek commission on behalf of a Chinese developer.
Ms Berejiklian is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Mr Maguire's resignation sparked a byelection,which the government lost to independent Joe McGirr,further reducing the government's majority in the lower house.