Rielle Hunter, the woman who had a child with former presidential candidate John Edwards, spoke to the media for the first time in an interview with GQ.
Hunter described how they met — on a street corner in New York after making eye contact across a restaurant — and said she fell in love just a few days later.
“I fell in love with him. Head over heels in love. I was a goner,” she said.
They are not engaged, she said.
She dismissed allegations that Edwards, whom Hunter calls “Johnny,” used campaign money improperly to pay her as a videographer during the campaign.
But how do you respond to the fact that campaign money, or PAC money, was used so he could spend more time with you?
It was actually used to make really great webisodes. He didn’t just hire me; he hired my whole team. We were doing real work.
A grand jury is investigating the claims.
She also refuted public perception of Edwards as someone who fell from grace.
“In reality, he’s fallen to grace. He is integrated. He is living a life of truth. He has grown in awareness and humility. He had all these things within him, but they weren’t the guiding, leading principles of his life. Now they are,” Hunter said.
Hunter is suing a former Edwards aide, Andrew Young, for intrusion of privacy over a sex tape of her and Edwards. The Daily Beast reported today that people who have seen the video say it is of Edwards performing oral sex on Hunter, although her face is not visible.
In the GQ interview, she said she didn’t speak to the media before now because she didn’t want to “emasculate” Edwards. She said that, despite receiving money as gifts from various sources, it was not hush money and she could have spoken at any time.
“Had I spoken, I would have emasculated him. And I could not emasculate him,” she said. “Also, it is not my desire to teach my daughter that when Mommy’s upset with Daddy, you take matters into your own hands and fix Daddy’s mistakes. Which I view as one of the biggest problems in all female-and-male relationships.”
She said Edwards is a “sweet” and “very loving” father to their daughter, Frances Quinn Hunter.
