The body that drove John Edwards mad: Rielle Hunter struts in her swimsuit in EXCLUSIVE pictures as she reveals 'extraordinary' first night in presidential candidate's hotel room
This is the body that sank John Edwards' political career.
Rielle Hunter, 48, looked svelte in a simple white tankini as she strutted in the southern sun on Figure Eight Island in North Carolina this weekend. The beach vacation came just in time for her to celebrate Father's Day with the man who spent two years publicly denying their daughter Quinn, 4, was his.
The candid photos come as Hunter reveals lurid details about her sex life with Edwards and the passion that drove him so mad he cheated on his cancer-stricken wife and sabotaged his presidential campaign in 2008.
Hunter says the first time she slept with Edwards was the 'most extraordinary night of her life.'
The couple met in February 2006 at the
Regency Hotel in New York City. Hours after Hunter approached the former
North Carolina Senator, he called her up to his hotel room for a night
of 'surrender' and 'zero sleep.'
Hunter claims she wrote the book, 'What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter and Me,' to publicly explanation the six-year romance to the couple's love child, Frances Quinn Hunter. However, the former campaign videographer seems to leave little to the imagination about her sex life.
The book is due out June 26. An extensive interview with ABC News will air Friday on '20/20.'
Hunter says she caught Edwards' eye at the hotel when she followed him out of a reception and said, 'You are so hot.'
Hours later, she got a call from him inviting her to his room.
She claims she went only because she thought she could give Edwards advice for his presidential campaign. But that all changed the moment she was alone behind closed doors with 'her Johnny.'
'The connection I felt when I walked in the door had only grown and the amount of energy between us was huge and unstoppable,' Hunter writes, according to an excerpt obtained by Radar Online.
'And then a moment came while we were talking when something in my heart clicked and I surrendered.
'I took off my teacher hat, let go of all my resistance to him and let him lead. And lead he did. He led me toward the most extraordinary night of my life. There was a lot of talk, a lot of laughter and zero sleep.'
But Hunter says she didn't give in easily to sleeping with a married man -- it took Edwards telling her a story about having three other mistresses to get her into bed that first night they met.
'He told me that he had an entire hidden life that had gone on for decades and that he was currently involved with three different women. One lived in Los Angeles, one in Florida, and one in Chicago,' Hunter writes, according to Radar Online.
'Clearly, this behavior of his was not going to change overnight... I also told him that if I was going to help him, he couldn't lie to me. He needed to have one person in his life that was safe for him.
'He said that wasn't a problem, and when he said that, I felt a wave of total relief roll off of him. He needed this safe place. Somewhere in the midst of our talk, long after I realized how far off the rails his marriage was, and for how long it had been that way, something happened between us.'
But Edwards did lie to Hunter. He lied that night about the three other mistresses -- and used the lie to manipulate her for five years. He didn't come clean about his love life until 2011, she says.
Edwards had two other mistresses, he said, but both those affairs ended before his 2004 bid to become Vice President.
Hunter, 48, says she spent most of her 20s snorting cocaine as she pursued an acting career in New York.
But she got past drug abuse before she turned 30 and replaced it, she claims, with a quest for 'spiritual growth.'
The book contains a full-throated defense of her lover -- even as she is coy about the status of their relationship.
Hunter
attacks Edwards' wife Elizabeth, who died in December 2010 of breast cancer,
calling her 'crazy,' 'venomous' and a 'witch on wheels.'
She says her abusive behavior toward John Edwards drove him into the arms of other women.
Other accounts of the 2008 presidential campaign, including 'Game Change' by journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin back up Hunter's portrait of Elizabeth Edwards as controlling and potentially abusive.
He also blasts Andrew Young, John Edwards top aide, who helped hide the affair for several years.
She says it was Young's idea for Edwards and Hunter and lie and say Hunter's baby, Quinn, belonged to him and not the presidential candidate.
Hunter
repeated the lie in an interview with the National Enquirer and
Edwards, famously, told ABC News during an August 2008 broadcast that
the baby was not his.
He didn't publicly acknowledge his love child until 2010, when she was nearly two.
Hunter's book is a window into the life of a political mistress.
Major New York publishers had said they were not interested in Hunter's book, citing her negative image, so it is instead being released through a Dallas-based boutique publisher, BenBella Books.
She describes waiting for hours at hotel bars for her lover to swoop in off the campaign trail.
They
often shared hurried dinners over take-out before short, passionate
romps. Then, Edwards had to leave and return to his cancer-stricken wife
and his life in the public eye.
When Edwards faced the prospect of an indictment that could put him behind bars, he calmly told Hunter he would probably wind up in a low-security prison in Virginia more like a country club than a jail.
She quickly responded that she and their daughter would move there to be near him if that happened.
Federal prosecutors spent a year prosecuting Edwards, culminating in a six-week trial that ended last month.
Jurors acquitted Edwards on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions and deadlocked on five other felony counts.
The
judge declared a mistrial. Federal prosecutors then said in a court
order earlier this month that they wouldn't retry Edwards, and the
charges against him were dropped.
Neither Edwards nor Hunter testified.
Prosecutors had accused Edwards, 59, of masterminding a scheme to use about $1 million in secret payments from two wealthy political donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008.
The trial publicized intimate details about Edwards' affair with Hunter as his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer.
Rielle Hunter, 48, looked svelte in a simple white tankini as she strutted in the southern sun on Figure Eight Island in North Carolina this weekend. The beach vacation came just in time for her to celebrate Father's Day with the man who spent two years publicly denying their daughter Quinn, 4, was his.
The candid photos come as Hunter reveals lurid details about her sex life with Edwards and the passion that drove him so mad he cheated on his cancer-stricken wife and sabotaged his presidential campaign in 2008.
Hunter says the first time she slept with Edwards was the 'most extraordinary night of her life.'
The body that drove John mad: Even at 48, Rielle
Hunter looks fetching in a simple white tankini as she and Quinn hit
the beach in North Carolina on Sunday
Holiday: Hunter, John Edwards and little Quinn
celebrated Father's Day at Figure Eight Island, off North Carolina's
southern coast. Hunter managed to show off her figure, even though she
covered up with a cowboy hat and sunglasses
Status unknown: Hunter remains coy about the status of her relationship with Edwards, claiming she doesn't even know
Hunter claims she wrote the book, 'What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter and Me,' to publicly explanation the six-year romance to the couple's love child, Frances Quinn Hunter. However, the former campaign videographer seems to leave little to the imagination about her sex life.
Family? Edward, Rielle and Quinn are pictured together at their rented beach house last weekend
Hunter says she caught Edwards' eye at the hotel when she followed him out of a reception and said, 'You are so hot.'
Hours later, she got a call from him inviting her to his room.
She claims she went only because she thought she could give Edwards advice for his presidential campaign. But that all changed the moment she was alone behind closed doors with 'her Johnny.'
'The connection I felt when I walked in the door had only grown and the amount of energy between us was huge and unstoppable,' Hunter writes, according to an excerpt obtained by Radar Online.
'And then a moment came while we were talking when something in my heart clicked and I surrendered.
'I took off my teacher hat, let go of all my resistance to him and let him lead. And lead he did. He led me toward the most extraordinary night of my life. There was a lot of talk, a lot of laughter and zero sleep.'
But Hunter says she didn't give in easily to sleeping with a married man -- it took Edwards telling her a story about having three other mistresses to get her into bed that first night they met.
'He told me that he had an entire hidden life that had gone on for decades and that he was currently involved with three different women. One lived in Los Angeles, one in Florida, and one in Chicago,' Hunter writes, according to Radar Online.
'Clearly, this behavior of his was not going to change overnight... I also told him that if I was going to help him, he couldn't lie to me. He needed to have one person in his life that was safe for him.
'He said that wasn't a problem, and when he said that, I felt a wave of total relief roll off of him. He needed this safe place. Somewhere in the midst of our talk, long after I realized how far off the rails his marriage was, and for how long it had been that way, something happened between us.'
But Edwards did lie to Hunter. He lied that night about the three other mistresses -- and used the lie to manipulate her for five years. He didn't come clean about his love life until 2011, she says.
Edwards had two other mistresses, he said, but both those affairs ended before his 2004 bid to become Vice President.
Hunter, 48, says she spent most of her 20s snorting cocaine as she pursued an acting career in New York.
But she got past drug abuse before she turned 30 and replaced it, she claims, with a quest for 'spiritual growth.'
The book contains a full-throated defense of her lover -- even as she is coy about the status of their relationship.
Sex-obsessed: Hunter claims she and Edwards had a
magnetic attraction that clicked as soon as she walked into his hotel
room in February 2006
Life in the spotlight: Hunter was an aspiring
actress for most of her young adult life and appeared in several movies,
including Ricochet. She also appeared in several stage plays
Watchful mother: Little Quinn stuck close to Hunter as she sunned herself on the white sandy beach
Paid the price: Edwards lost his political
career, and his shot at national office, because he could not resist
Hunter, a leggy blonde who has stayed svelte even six years after her
relationship with the two-time presidential candidate began
She says her abusive behavior toward John Edwards drove him into the arms of other women.
Other accounts of the 2008 presidential campaign, including 'Game Change' by journalists John Heilemann and Mark Halperin back up Hunter's portrait of Elizabeth Edwards as controlling and potentially abusive.
He also blasts Andrew Young, John Edwards top aide, who helped hide the affair for several years.
She says it was Young's idea for Edwards and Hunter and lie and say Hunter's baby, Quinn, belonged to him and not the presidential candidate.
Playing in the surf: Hunter and Quinn frolicked in the warm water with other beach-goers on Sunday afternoon
Father's Day: The family were staying at a
rented beach-house in North Carolina. Edwards was seen at the house
three days earlier, clutching his swimming shorts and a bottle of wine
in a plastic bag
Loyal: Hunter makes excuses for Edwards' bad
behavior in her book, while fiercely attacking his wife, Elizabeth, who
died of cancer of 2010. She says Elizabeth Edwards controlling, abusive
behavior is what drove 'her Johnny' into her arms
He didn't publicly acknowledge his love child until 2010, when she was nearly two.
Hunter's book is a window into the life of a political mistress.
Major New York publishers had said they were not interested in Hunter's book, citing her negative image, so it is instead being released through a Dallas-based boutique publisher, BenBella Books.
She describes waiting for hours at hotel bars for her lover to swoop in off the campaign trail.
Seeking publicity: Hunter has thrust herself
into the spotlight with the new book. She will appear in an interview
with ABC News on Friday
Adorable: Quinn, four, looked like she was having plenty of fun playing on the beach with her mother
Where's John? Edwards did not company his lover and his daughter to the beach, he likely stayed back at their rented house
The horse murders: This isn't the first time
Hunter has been at the center of a national scandal. Her father was
accused of paying a man to electrocute her prize-winning show horse so
he could collect the $150,000 insurance money
When Edwards faced the prospect of an indictment that could put him behind bars, he calmly told Hunter he would probably wind up in a low-security prison in Virginia more like a country club than a jail.
Federal prosecutors spent a year prosecuting Edwards, culminating in a six-week trial that ended last month.
Jurors acquitted Edwards on one count of accepting illegal campaign contributions and deadlocked on five other felony counts.
Turned over a new leaf: Hunter says she spent most of her 20s snorting cocaine, but gave up drugs to pursue 'spiritual growth'
Come-on: Hunter says she got Edwards' attention the first night they met by chasing after him and telling him 'You're so hot'
Presence: Edwards claimed Hunter had a physical and sexual confidence that made her irresistible
Neither Edwards nor Hunter testified.
Prosecutors had accused Edwards, 59, of masterminding a scheme to use about $1 million in secret payments from two wealthy political donors to hide his pregnant mistress as he sought the White House in 2008.
The trial publicized intimate details about Edwards' affair with Hunter as his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer.
Around town: Quinn held her mother's hand as she walked to the beach
In the clear: Edwards will not face prosecution
again on charges he concealed campaign contributions to hide Hunter. He
was acquitted on one count by a jury on May 31
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