"I will never leave that woman," McCarthy told a friend in a private conversation reported by the Times. "I will always take care of her."

Photos of the two becoming unusually close on the House floor began to surface during the votes for House speaker in early January.

Greene, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, surprised many by breaking rank with other conservatives to voice her staunch support of the centrist and often ineffectual McCarthy.

She quickly lashed out at his detractors after the GOP secured a slimmer-than-expected House majority in the November midterm election.

"I want to tell you how shortsighted and ridiculous that is," Greene said in November Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast.

"It is pathetic, the people that are running out saying it's his fault," she continued. "No, that is a lazy, pathetic, wimpy, easy mindset. They just want one thing and then they want to carry on without doing the hard work—the real changes in the Republican Party and the way we fight the fight."