Rielle Hunter Reveals John Edwards' Multiple Mistresses in Tell-All

Rielle Hunter dishes in memoir about making sex tape with John Edwards.

ByABC News
June 17, 2012, 2:41 PM

June 18, 2012— -- Rielle Hunter was John Edwards' last mistress, but not his first or only one, she claims in a revealing tell-all memoir obtained by ABC News.

In the bombshell book, "What Really Happened" set to hit stores on June 26, Hunter reveals that Edwards, a two-time presidential candidate, had affairs with at least two other women dating back 20 years, and did not reveal the truth about his former relationships until 2011, two years after Hunter appeared before a grand jury.

The release of the book, which she wrote in an effort to explain her relationship with Edwards to their daughter, coincides with an exclusive interview with ABC's Chris Cuomo, which will air this Friday, June 22.

"There's never been a more aptly named book," said Cuomo. "It is quite possible that after reading this book people will question prior judgments they had about Rielle Hunter."

Tune in to "20/20" Friday for an Exclusive Interview With Rielle Hunter.

Ironically, when Edwards first met Hunter in 2006 he lied to her about having more mistresses -- not fewer -- and only revealed the truth about his relationships years later, when he was set to be tried for using donations from wealthy political supporters to cover up his illicit affair and the daughter he had with Hunter.

Edwards last month was acquitted on one count of violating campaign finance rules and a federal judge declared a mistrial on five other criminal counts after the jury came back deadlocked. The Justice Department will not retry the case.

In the book, Hunter is vague about the current status of her relationship with Edwards, but suggests that they remain romantically involved and he is a presence in daughter Frances Quinn Hunter's life.

In the upcoming "20/20" interview, Hunter will reveal the current status of her relationship with Edwards.

"I really have no idea what will happen with us. The jury is still out. But I can honestly say that the ending is of no concern to me anymore. The love is here. And as sappy as it may sound, I love living in love," she writes.

Hunter says she was driven to write the book because she wants daughter Frances Quinn to "have one entirely truthful public account of how she came into the world. After all, this is her story too."

The book is a primer on the life of a political mistress -- long waits in hotel bars and furtive dinners over take-out, punctuated by short passionate trysts and the anxiety of being hounded by the paparazzi.

It is additionally both a full throated defense of Edwards' innocence and at times a screed against Edwards' wife Elizabeth, whom Hunter routinely describes as "crazy" and blames for driving Edwards into the arms of other women.

Hunter and Edwards met on Feb. 21, 2006, at the New York Regency Hotel. She approached the former senator with the come-on, "You are so hot," and moments later he called to invite her up to his room.

On that first night, Edwards, then mulling a second run for the White House, told Hunter he was currently sexually involved with three other women simultaneously, and had mistresses in Chicago, Los Angeles and Florida.

Throughout the first weeks of their relationship, Edwards would reference these women, even detailing trips to meet and break up with them.

But all three women, Edwards later confessed to Hunter, were completely fabricated. Made up, he said, so Hunter and other former mistresses, to whom he had told the same story, would not become too attached.