They’ll always have 2006. Former North Carolina senator John Edwards’ ex-mistress Rielle Hunter got candid about her current relationship with Edwards in a new interview with Good Morning America on Friday, July 22.
“He’s family, I absolutely love him,” Hunter said of the 2004 Democratic vice presidential candidate, who is the father of her daughter Frances Quinn. “I will always love him.”
Hunter appeared on the morning show to promote her new children’s book Howie Do It — Finding Happiness Right Now, which her daughter illustrated.
The 52-year-old single mom told GMA that Edwards sees Frances as often as he can and that he has a “real soft spot” for Quinn. “We’re very, very good friends and great coparents,” she added of their relationship now. “We have the same goals. We want the best for Quinn.”
As previously reported, Hunter and Edwards had an affair in 2006 while he was still married to wife Elizabeth Edwards, who was suffering from breast cancer at the time. Amid denying allegations of their affair, Hunter gave birth to their daughter Quinn in February 2008 as the politician was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Two years after Quinn’s birth — and after denying paternity — Edwards released a bombshell statement in January 2010 admitting that he was, in fact, her father. His wife Elizabeth — they share four children — then separated from him before succumbing to breast cancer in December 2010.
In a 2013 essay for The Huffington Post, Hunter apologized for their actions. “I fell in love with John Edwards and wanted to be with him and that desire trumped everything else,” she said at the time.
