John Edwards' Affair With Rielle Hunter: Admits Infidelity (VIDEO)
***UPDATE*** 8/9
ABC is reporting that Rielle Hunter's family has asked John Edwards to take a paternity test:
The family of John Edwards' former mistress, Rielle Hunter, is challenging the former senator to take a DNA paternity test after his claim that he did not father Hunter's 6-months-old child.
In the first reaction from Hunter's family, her younger sister Melissa told ABC News that Edwards should immediately follow through on his pledge to take a paternity test.
"I would challenge him to do so," the sister said.
"Somebody must stand up and defend my sister," she said. "I wish that those involved would refrain from bad-mouthing my sister."
Edwards appeared on ABC Nightline Friday night to talk about his affair. And according to Broadcasting and Cable, Edwards is furious about the network's handling of the interview:
Edwards had hoped to control the news cycle by making his admission late on a Friday night when the country was watching the Olympics and the long weekend yawned ahead.
According to multiple sources, Edwards was apoplectic that ABC News began promoting the story early on Friday, giving the rest of the media a chance to play catch-up and site ABC News' report. (Representatives for Edwards did not return a call or e-mail for comment.)
Edwards subsequently made solicitous calls to multiple reporters including CBS News' Bob Schieffer, who also talked to a distraught Elizabeth Edwards.
From the AP: John Edwards admits extra-marital affair with Rielle Hunter:
Former presidential candidate John Edwards, who won nationwide praise and sympathy as he campaigned side by side with his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, admitted in shame Friday he had had an affair with a woman who produced videos as he prepared to launch his campaign.Acknowledging a sex scandal he had dismissed as "tabloid trash" only last month, Edwards said he had told his wife and family long ago, but "I had hoped that it would never become public."
Watch Edwards' statement about the affair:
Watch Rielle Hunter discuss working with Edwards on "Extra". Hunter told "Extra" "she traveled with Edwards for six months and spent a great deal of time with him saying, 'I was around him a lot. It was great. We went to Africa. The whole experience was life altering for me.'"
Photos of Edwards with Rielle Hunters's child surfaced this week in The National Enquirer. Edwards denies in the interview that he's the father of Rielle Hunter's baby even though he has not taken a paternity test.
Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter's baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.
Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby's birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.
Hillary Clinton comments on the Edwards' affair at Obama rally:
"My thoughts and prayers are with the Edwards family today and that's all I've got to say," she said.
HuffPost's Sam Stein was the first to look into Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter in the fall of 2007:
In the summer of 2006, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards commissioned a series of web-based documentary shorts for his pre-announcement leadership PAC, the One America Committee. Within political circles, the videos were regarded as innovative, having successfully painted Edwards in a sympathetic, down-to-earth light.
Now, however, nearly all traces of the webisodes - as they became known - are gone. Links to them on the Internet no longer work. The Edwards campaign won't release the videos, and the production company behind the films is citing confidentiality agreements in refusing to talk.
Stein also looked into a series of "webisodes" Rielle Hunter made for John Edwards that were deleted when Edwards began his presidential run:
A set of short documentary film "webisodes" made for former Sen. John Edwards prior to his presidential candidacy continues to weave a curious web, this time involving the filmmaker.
The videos, which cost Edwards' One America Committee $114,461, were produced in 2006 by an aspiring actress/producer named Rielle Hunter, who proposed the idea to the senator in a bar in New York City. The objective was to give viewers - and presumably voters - an authentic look at the North Carolinian. But shortly after Edwards declared his White House aspirations, the footage all but disappeared from public view. After the Huffington Post wrote about the webisodes, the videos resurfaced, both on YouTube and Webcastr.com, although the anonymous individual who reposted them (user name: "MissingVideos") has not responded to emails.
Below are urls to some of the videos that Hunter produced for Edwards:
http://www.webcastr.com/videos/politics/edwards-webisode-1-plane-truths.html
http://www.webcastr.com/videos/politics/missing-edwards-webisode-4-plugs.html
http://www.webcastr.com/videos/politics/missing-edwards-webisode-3-plight-of-uganda.html
http://www.webcastr.com/search.aspx?sStr=john%20edwards
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First Posted: 08- 8-08 02:56 PM | Updated: 09- 8-08 05:12 AM