海角大神

After two years of silence, Rielle Hunter fires back

John Edwards' former mistress shares her side of the affair - and some skin - in a "doozy" of an interview with GQ.

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Shawn Rocco/Raleigh News & Observer/MCT
Rielle Hunter, the former mistress of presidential candidate John Edwards leaves the federal courthouse in Raleigh, NC.

Readers got a second-hand earful about Rielle Hunter in two recent books. Now, the woman best known for bearing the child of former presidential candidate John Edwards has shared her side of the story 鈥 or, at least, 10,000 words worth of it. As the put it, 鈥渋t鈥檚 a doozy.鈥

The Post ran glamour-girl photos and quotes from an interview Hunter gave to GQ magazine, where she presents a counterpoint to 鈥淭he Politician,鈥 by campaign aide Andrew Young, and to 鈥淩esilience,鈥 by the candidate鈥檚 now-estranged wife, Elizabeth Edwards. The former, as the paper put it, had portrayed Hunter as a 鈥渓oony, needy, loose cannon,鈥 and the latter considered her 鈥渁n aggressive home-wrecker鈥.

I personally had preferred Hunter鈥檚 two years of to the bare-midriffed, bare-legged GQ photos, and yet I did appreciate hearing some words from a woman who has been spoken about so often by others. From a bookkeeping standpoint, though, I found this tidbit from the Post fascinating: The writer who interviewed Hunter for GQ, Lisa DePaulo, had also been briefly hired as a ghostwriter on Young鈥檚 memoir.

鈥淭hat connection, later severed, was not disclosed in the GQ article,鈥 The Post said. 鈥淒ePaulo told us she signed a confidentiality agreement with Young, which prevented her from discussing the work they'd done -- all of which, she said, was separate from her work with Hunter, whom she first approached via mutual friends in December, six months after her last contact with Young.鈥

Nothing is ever as straightforward as it looks in the world of politics and scandal. At this point, I wouldn鈥檛 even bet on whether Hunter will be moving forward with a memoir of her own.

Rebekah Denn blogs at .

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