Rielle Hunter on John Edwards: 'I Know He Loves Me'
Andrew Young responds: calls Hunter "different," says claims are "ridiculous."
March 15, 2010 — -- John Edwards' mistress, commenting for the first time about being at the center of one of the most explosive scandals in American politics, said she believes her relationship with the former presidential candidate may be just beginning.
"We do love each other very much," Rielle Hunter told GQ magazine in a lengthy interview. "And that hasn't changed, and I believe that will be till death do us part. The love doesn't go away."
But former Edwards aide Andrew Young, who had at one time claimed paternity of the love child, told ABCNews.com today that the interview with GQ only served to show the world that she has tapped into a well-paid "army of lawyers."
"I think all of us, we're all trying to find a way of reaching peace with what we've done," he said, before calling some of Hunter's claims in the article "ridiculous."
The public has skewered the former senator for cheating on his dying wife and then denying his mistress' child, but Hunter insists he is the epitome of truthfulness and humility.
"Everyone talks about how Johnny has fallen from grace," Hunter, 45, told the magazine. "In reality, he's fallen to grace."
The interview with GQ, accompanied by photos of Hunter posing in bed wearing what appears to be a man's white button-down shirt, marks the first time she has spoken in public, a decision she said was always hers and never Edwards.'
Months into the ensuing passionate affair, Hunter said that when she told Edwards she was pregnant with his child, he seemed to want her to have an abortion.
"He ... always said that he would support whatever decision I made," Hunter told GQ. "But I believe on some level he was hoping that I would get an abortion. Because he didn't -- he wasn't happy about the timing. Which is understandable. He was married and running for president."
Representatives for both John and Elizabeth Edwards told ABC News that they would not be commenting on the GQ article.
Click here to read the full interview at GQ.com.
The 10-page Q & A, done at the rental home where Hunter lives with her and Edwards' 2-year-old daughter Quinn, touches on her early days with Edwards, the frustration of watching him deny their child and what she says are gargantuan untruths told by former Edwards aide Andrew Young.
"To me it kind of confirms what a lot of people thought of Rielle," Young said of the GQ article. When pushed to clarify, he hedged. "That she's a little bit of a different type of person."
Young said it was Hunter who has taken liberties with the truth and that he has the voicemails and e-mails to corroborate his story. Among the claims Young took offense at -- Hunter's insistence that she had no idea that the amount of money being funneled to her through the Youngs by private benefactors topped $700,000.
"It's patently ridiculous for Rielle to say she that didn't know that money was coming in or this or that. We were living in a $20,000 a month house right down the road from Oprah Winfrey," Young said. "I mean, come 'on."
He also blasted her version of events that led to Young claiming paternity of Quinn. Young has maintained that the request came from John Edwards. But in the GQ article, Hunter claims it was Young's suggestion, made while Hunter was on the phone with Edwards, who was livid about his visibly pregnant mistress being photographed by the National Enquirer.
"Yeah! I want to be the baby daddy," Young said sarcastically. "No --that's ridiculous."
Young also questioned the photo spread that accompanied the GQ article, something Hunter herself was said to be very upset about.
ABC News' Barbara Walters said on "The View" today that she had spoken with Hunter in the morning and that Hunter said there was supposed to be just one sexy photo, not an entire collection.
Walters said Hunter was repulsed by the sight of the photos.
"She cried for two hours and realizes how terrible they are," Walters said.
Click here for complete coverage of the John Edwards scandal.
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