The most possible that the hacker did is not steal your private key with you but I think he uses some site wherein you used your private key to open your account, some are using this thing to have a look in your account key when you use it even just one time, so next time careful with the site you use.
You are not correct mate. When you use the private key with the phising site you will be having possibilities to loose the fund with the MEW wallet access with the scam site access mate.
There are many fake sites are there in the market like that to steal your fund.
If you have private key secured there is very possibility to take the fund.