Rielle Hunter
Encyclopedia
Rielle HunterBirth certificate of child linked to ex-Sen. John Edwards lists no father, August 1, 2008, San Jose Mercury-News. is an American
actress and film producer
. She is known for having had an affair
with and conceiving a child with 2004 Democratic Party
vice-presidential
nominee John Edwards
.Rielle Hunter, John Edwards Affair, August 8, 2008, Chicago Tribune
. She is said to be the basis of a character in a Jay McInerney
novel. and she was an early adopter of YouTube
as a means of distributing political viral marketing
. Her father was implicated in a horse insurance fraud scandal
, which involved the intentional killing of her horse when she was a teenager.
. Her parents, James Druck (1934–1990) and Gwen Druck, owned Eagle Nest Farm in Ocala, Florida
, where they raised show horses
. They had four daughters. James Druck was a wealthy lawyer with his own private airplane, who specialized in defending insurance companies.
Druck went to St. John Lutheran School and
North Marion High School in Ocala. After high school, Druck attended the University of Tampa
, but she transferred after 2 years to the University of Florida. In her junior year she withdrew from UF to move to New York City to pursue an acting career.Who is Rielle Hunter?, August 8, 2008, The News and Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina
, Lisa Druck was "a prize-winning equestrian
when her father was implicated" in the horse murders
scandal, "an ugly plot to electrocute horses for insurance money." The convicted criminal and FBI informant Tommy "The Sandman" Burns stated that James Druck was involved in the 1982 insurance fraud death of Lisa's show jumper Henry the Hawk. Gwen and James Druck divorced that same year; Lisa was 17 years old at the time. James Druck was never charged, and he died of cancer
in New York City in 1990.
" novelist Jay McInerney
said that his former-girlfriend Hunter is the basis for the lead character Alison Poole in the 1988 novel Story of My Life
. McInerney described their relationship and Hunter's role as the inspiration for the character in an interview in 2005. McInerney also said that he chose to write about her and her friends because he was both "intrigued and appalled" by their behavior.
There was open speculation that Story of My Life was a roman à clef
novel when it first appeared; to New York Magazines questions "Is it real? Did it happen?" McInerney replied, "I'm anticipating some of that kind of speculation, but I'm utterly confident of not having any lawsuits on my hands. The book is a fully imagined work of fiction. On the other hand, it's not to say that I didn't make use of [pause] … That's why I live in New York. Mine is not an autonomous imagination."
In 2008, McInerney incorporated the John Edwards affair into the Allison Poole follow-up story "Penelope on the Pond" in his short story collections The Last Bachelor and How It Ended.
Alexander M. "Kip" Hunter III (born April 14, 1959) in Cabo San Lucas
, Mexico
, on August 3, 1991, and they moved from New York to establish a new home in Beverly Hills, California
. She changed her name
to Rielle Hunter in 1994.
Rielle Hunter filed for divorce
in October 1999, which was finalized September 1, 2000.
(1991) in which she portrayed a reporter.
According to People
, during this same period, while she was married to Alexander Hunter, her husband "financed the production of a play for her – a coming-of-age story about a group of tough 30-something New Yorkers [...] titled Savage in Limbo
," which co-starred Elizabeth Dennehy
.
In 2000, as Rielle Hunter, she wrote, acted in, and produced a comedy short called Billy Bob and Them, which starred Wolfgang Bodison
. At that time her production company was called R Hunter Films.
In 2002, Hunter appeared as a contestant on the GSN series Lingo (episode #1061, hosted by Chuck Woolery
), on which she and her partner together won $500.
. The series of ads, "Inspiring Politics: A Webisode Series Following John Edwards," was broadcast on the worldwide web rather than through conventional television
. According to the Associated Press
, Edwards' One America Committee paid Midline Groove Productions $100,000 on July 6, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware. The committee later made two subsequent payments totaling $14,461, the final one on April 1, 2007. In all, Midline Groove filmed and produced four of these short videos; the shortest was 2½ minutes long.
Hunter's videos were uploaded to YouTube
. Recognition of the innovative nature of the series was given by BusinessWeek
magazine, which included one of the episodes in a 2006 feature on new developments in web video. Catherine Holoran, writing for the magazine, noted that the Hunter videos had effectively announced the presidential candidacy of Edwards ten days before he released the information to the mainstream media
. Holoran stated that Hunter's series marked a "tipping point" in the history of web video which "sent the message that online video [... is ...] a serious medium, ready to contend with traditional media for audiences and ad dollars."
In 2008, Maria Russo, the reviewer of websites for the Los Angeles Times
, also mentioned that Hunter had been among the earliest adopters of You Tube for viral marketing
purposes, and was the first filmmaker who exploited that venue for political campaign marketing.
in New York
, where he was attending a business meeting. The Edwards campaign soon hired her to produce a series of promotional videos portraying behind-the-scenes life on the campaign trail and Hunter filmed and produced four of these short videos for the 2008 presidential campaign of John Edwards
.
In October 2007, The National Enquirer
, an American tabloid, cited claims by an anonymous source that Edwards had engaged in an extramarital affair with Hunter during Edwards's 2008 presidential campaign
and that Hunter was pregnant. After a report by the National Enquirer on December 19, 2007, Hunter announced she was pregnant with the child of Andrew Young
, a married man who is a former staffer for John Edwards' presidential campaign. Young, his wife Cheri, and their young children were living outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
, at the time in the same "Governor's Club" complex where Hunter was renting. Soon afterward, the Youngs and Hunter moved to California.Transcript: John Edwards Admits Extra-Marital Affair, August 8, 2008, guest host Wolf Blitzer interviewing National Enquirer reporter on CNN
Larry King Live.
On February 27, 2008, Hunter, at age 43, gave birth to a daughter in Santa Barbara, California
, but did not list the child's father's name on the birth certificate. She gave her own name as "Rielle Jaya James Druck" on her daughter's birth certificate, but gave the child the surname "Hunter".Birth certificate of child linked to ex-Sen. John Edwards lists no father, August 1, 2008, San Jose Mercury-News.
In July 2008, The National Enquirer claimed that Edwards was the father of Hunter's child.
On August 8, Edwards admitted the affair, but denied that he was the father of Hunter's child and stated that he was willing to take a paternity test.Birth certificate for Rielle Hunter's child lists no father, July 31, 2008, Charlotte Observer The Washington Post
reported that Robert Gordon (Hunter's attorney) stated that she had refused to allow a DNA test to establish paternity "now or in the future." However, Hunter's sister has publicly asked Edwards to take a paternity test to verify whether the child is his or not.
On August 12, 2008, a friend of Hunter's, Pigeon O'Brien, told CBS News
that Edwards had lied about the time line of the affair. She claimed that the affair began in February 2006, six months before Edwards hired Hunter, and said that the affair was not a brief liaison, but a mutual, committed relationship based on love, or so Edwards led Hunter to believe. On August 13, 2008, Hunter's sister, Roxanne Druck Marshall, personally apologized to John Edwards's wife Elizabeth
for her sister's behavior. She also claimed that Edwards had lied in his confession because, she claimed, the affair had been ongoing.
On January 21, 2010, Edwards admitted publicly that he is the father of Hunter's daughter Quinn.
People of the United States
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
actress and film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
. She is known for having had an affair
John Edwards extramarital affair
The John Edwards extramarital affair refers to the extramarital affair admitted to in August 2008 by John Edwards, a former United States Senator from North Carolina and Democratic Party presidential candidate...
with and conceiving a child with 2004 Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
vice-presidential
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
nominee John Edwards
John Edwards
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...
.Rielle Hunter, John Edwards Affair, August 8, 2008, Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
. She is said to be the basis of a character in a Jay McInerney
Jay McInerney
John Barrett McInerney Jr. is an American writer. His novels include Bright Lights, Big City; Ransom; Story of My Life; Brightness Falls; and The Last of the Savages...
novel. and she was an early adopter of YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
as a means of distributing political viral marketing
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
. Her father was implicated in a horse insurance fraud scandal
Horse murders
The horse murders scandal were cases of insurance fraud in the United States in which expensive horses, many of them show jumpers, were insured against death, accident, or disease, and then killed to collect the insurance money...
, which involved the intentional killing of her horse when she was a teenager.
Family and early life
Druck was born in Fort Lauderdale, FloridaFort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
. Her parents, James Druck (1934–1990) and Gwen Druck, owned Eagle Nest Farm in Ocala, Florida
Ocala, Florida
Ocala is a city in Marion County, Florida. As of 2007, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 53,491. It is the county seat of Marion County, and the principal city of the Ocala, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated 2007 population of 324,857.-History:Ocala...
, where they raised show horses
Show jumping
Show jumping, also known as "stadium jumping," "open jumping," or "jumpers," is a member of a family of English riding equestrian events that also includes dressage, eventing, hunters, and equitation. Jumping classes commonly are seen at horse shows throughout the world, including the Olympics...
. They had four daughters. James Druck was a wealthy lawyer with his own private airplane, who specialized in defending insurance companies.
Druck went to St. John Lutheran School and
North Marion High School in Ocala. After high school, Druck attended the University of Tampa
University of Tampa
The University of Tampa , is a private, co-educational university in Downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 2006, the University celebrated its 75th anniversary...
, but she transferred after 2 years to the University of Florida. In her junior year she withdrew from UF to move to New York City to pursue an acting career.Who is Rielle Hunter?, August 8, 2008, The News and Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
Horse murders and Henry the Hawk
According to ABC NewsABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
, Lisa Druck was "a prize-winning equestrian
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
when her father was implicated" in the horse murders
Horse murders
The horse murders scandal were cases of insurance fraud in the United States in which expensive horses, many of them show jumpers, were insured against death, accident, or disease, and then killed to collect the insurance money...
scandal, "an ugly plot to electrocute horses for insurance money." The convicted criminal and FBI informant Tommy "The Sandman" Burns stated that James Druck was involved in the 1982 insurance fraud death of Lisa's show jumper Henry the Hawk. Gwen and James Druck divorced that same year; Lisa was 17 years old at the time. James Druck was never charged, and he died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in New York City in 1990.
Literary inspiration
"Brat PackBrat Pack (literary)
The expression "literary Brat Pack" refers to the three young, East-coast American authors, Bret Easton Ellis, Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney, who emerged in USA in the 1980s...
" novelist Jay McInerney
Jay McInerney
John Barrett McInerney Jr. is an American writer. His novels include Bright Lights, Big City; Ransom; Story of My Life; Brightness Falls; and The Last of the Savages...
said that his former-girlfriend Hunter is the basis for the lead character Alison Poole in the 1988 novel Story of My Life
Story of My Life (novel)
Story of My Life is a novel published in 1988 by the American author Jay McInerney.-Plot and characters:The novel is narrated in the first-person from the point of view of Alison Poole, "an ostensibly jaded, cocaine-addled, sexually voracious 20-year old." Alison is originally from Virginia and...
. McInerney described their relationship and Hunter's role as the inspiration for the character in an interview in 2005. McInerney also said that he chose to write about her and her friends because he was both "intrigued and appalled" by their behavior.
There was open speculation that Story of My Life was a roman à clef
Roman à clef
Roman à clef or roman à clé , French for "novel with a key", is a phrase used to describe a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction...
novel when it first appeared; to New York Magazines questions "Is it real? Did it happen?" McInerney replied, "I'm anticipating some of that kind of speculation, but I'm utterly confident of not having any lawsuits on my hands. The book is a fully imagined work of fiction. On the other hand, it's not to say that I didn't make use of [pause] … That's why I live in New York. Mine is not an autonomous imagination."
In 2008, McInerney incorporated the John Edwards affair into the Allison Poole follow-up story "Penelope on the Pond" in his short story collections The Last Bachelor and How It Ended.
Marriage and name change
Lisa Druck married attorneyLawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
Alexander M. "Kip" Hunter III (born April 14, 1959) in Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas
Cabo San Lucas , commonly called Cabo, is a city at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, in the municipality of Los Cabos in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur. As of the 2010 census, the population was 68,463 people...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, on August 3, 1991, and they moved from New York to establish a new home in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
. She changed her name
Name change
Name change generally refers to a legal act allowing a person to adopt a name different than their name at birth, marriage, or adoption. The procedures and ease of a name change depend on the jurisdiction. In general, common law jurisdictions have loose limitations on name changes while civil law...
to Rielle Hunter in 1994.
Rielle Hunter filed for divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
in October 1999, which was finalized September 1, 2000.
Acting, film, and video career
During the 1980s and 1990s, as Lisa Hunter and Lisa Jo Hunter, she appeared in the film RicochetRicochet (film)
Ricochet is a 1991 crime-thriller film, directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Denzel Washington, John Lithgow, Ice-T, Kevin Pollak, and Lindsay Wagner...
(1991) in which she portrayed a reporter.
According to People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
, during this same period, while she was married to Alexander Hunter, her husband "financed the production of a play for her – a coming-of-age story about a group of tough 30-something New Yorkers [...] titled Savage in Limbo
Savage in Limbo
Savage In Limbo is a 1984 play by American playwright John Patrick Shanley. The play follows the tragicomic lives of a group of losers who frequent a seedy Bronx bar....
," which co-starred Elizabeth Dennehy
Elizabeth Dennehy
Elizabeth Hannah Dennehy is an American actress. She is the daughter of Brian Dennehy and sister of Kathleen Dennehy. She is married to actor James Lancaster. She is a graduate of Hofstra University. Her work involves mainly television and some film...
.
In 2000, as Rielle Hunter, she wrote, acted in, and produced a comedy short called Billy Bob and Them, which starred Wolfgang Bodison
Wolfgang Bodison
Wolfgang Bodison is an American actor, best known for playing Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson in the drama A Few Good Men....
. At that time her production company was called R Hunter Films.
In 2002, Hunter appeared as a contestant on the GSN series Lingo (episode #1061, hosted by Chuck Woolery
Chuck Woolery
Charles Herbert "Chuck" Woolery is an American game show host. He has had long-running tenures hosting several different game shows. He was the original host of Wheel of Fortune from 1975–81, the original incarnation of Love Connection from 1983–94, and Scrabble from 1984–90...
), on which she and her partner together won $500.
Midline Groove Productions
In July 2006, Hunter formed the production company Midline Groove Productions LLC with her partner Mimi Godfrey Hockman. This company, which was based in South Orange, NJ, produced campaign promotional videos for John EdwardsJohn Edwards
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards is an American politician, who served as a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004 and 2008.He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in...
. The series of ads, "Inspiring Politics: A Webisode Series Following John Edwards," was broadcast on the worldwide web rather than through conventional television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. According to the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, Edwards' One America Committee paid Midline Groove Productions $100,000 on July 6, 2006, five days after Hunter incorporated the firm in Delaware. The committee later made two subsequent payments totaling $14,461, the final one on April 1, 2007. In all, Midline Groove filmed and produced four of these short videos; the shortest was 2½ minutes long.
Hunter's videos were uploaded to YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. Recognition of the innovative nature of the series was given by BusinessWeek
BusinessWeek
Bloomberg Businessweek, commonly and formerly known as BusinessWeek, is a weekly business magazine published by Bloomberg L.P. It is currently headquartered in New York City.- History :...
magazine, which included one of the episodes in a 2006 feature on new developments in web video. Catherine Holoran, writing for the magazine, noted that the Hunter videos had effectively announced the presidential candidacy of Edwards ten days before he released the information to the mainstream media
Mainstream media
Mainstream media are those media disseminated via the largest distribution channels, which therefore represent what the majority of media consumers are likely to encounter...
. Holoran stated that Hunter's series marked a "tipping point" in the history of web video which "sent the message that online video [... is ...] a serious medium, ready to contend with traditional media for audiences and ad dollars."
In 2008, Maria Russo, the reviewer of websites for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, also mentioned that Hunter had been among the earliest adopters of You Tube for viral marketing
Viral marketing
Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses...
purposes, and was the first filmmaker who exploited that venue for political campaign marketing.
Involvement with John Edwards
In 2006, Hunter had pitched the idea of a series of short informal campaign videos to Democrat John Edwards when she met him at a barBar (establishment)
A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...
in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where he was attending a business meeting. The Edwards campaign soon hired her to produce a series of promotional videos portraying behind-the-scenes life on the campaign trail and Hunter filmed and produced four of these short videos for the 2008 presidential campaign of John Edwards
John Edwards presidential campaign, 2008
John Edwards is the former United States Senator from North Carolina and was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004. On December 28, 2006, he announced his entry into the 2008 Presidential election in the city of New Orleans near sites devastated by Hurricane Katrina...
.
In October 2007, The National Enquirer
The National Enquirer
The National Enquirer is an American supermarket tabloid now published by American Media Inc . Founded in 1926, the tabloid has gone through a variety of changes over the years....
, an American tabloid, cited claims by an anonymous source that Edwards had engaged in an extramarital affair with Hunter during Edwards's 2008 presidential campaign
John Edwards presidential campaign, 2008
John Edwards is the former United States Senator from North Carolina and was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004. On December 28, 2006, he announced his entry into the 2008 Presidential election in the city of New Orleans near sites devastated by Hurricane Katrina...
and that Hunter was pregnant. After a report by the National Enquirer on December 19, 2007, Hunter announced she was pregnant with the child of Andrew Young
Andrew Young (political operative)
Andrew Aldridge Young was a key staff member in the John Edwards 2008 presidential campaign. Young came to prominence via a scandal in which he claimed paternity of Rielle Hunter's child born on February 27, 2008. John Edwards had admitted a past affair with Hunter, but denied paternity of the...
, a married man who is a former staffer for John Edwards' presidential campaign. Young, his wife Cheri, and their young children were living outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care...
, at the time in the same "Governor's Club" complex where Hunter was renting. Soon afterward, the Youngs and Hunter moved to California.Transcript: John Edwards Admits Extra-Marital Affair, August 8, 2008, guest host Wolf Blitzer interviewing National Enquirer reporter on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
Larry King Live.
On February 27, 2008, Hunter, at age 43, gave birth to a daughter in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
, but did not list the child's father's name on the birth certificate. She gave her own name as "Rielle Jaya James Druck" on her daughter's birth certificate, but gave the child the surname "Hunter".Birth certificate of child linked to ex-Sen. John Edwards lists no father, August 1, 2008, San Jose Mercury-News.
In July 2008, The National Enquirer claimed that Edwards was the father of Hunter's child.
On August 8, Edwards admitted the affair, but denied that he was the father of Hunter's child and stated that he was willing to take a paternity test.Birth certificate for Rielle Hunter's child lists no father, July 31, 2008, Charlotte Observer The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
reported that Robert Gordon (Hunter's attorney) stated that she had refused to allow a DNA test to establish paternity "now or in the future." However, Hunter's sister has publicly asked Edwards to take a paternity test to verify whether the child is his or not.
On August 12, 2008, a friend of Hunter's, Pigeon O'Brien, told CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
that Edwards had lied about the time line of the affair. She claimed that the affair began in February 2006, six months before Edwards hired Hunter, and said that the affair was not a brief liaison, but a mutual, committed relationship based on love, or so Edwards led Hunter to believe. On August 13, 2008, Hunter's sister, Roxanne Druck Marshall, personally apologized to John Edwards's wife Elizabeth
Elizabeth Edwards
Elizabeth Anania Edwards was an American attorney, a best-selling author and a health care activist. She was married to John Edwards, the former U.S...
for her sister's behavior. She also claimed that Edwards had lied in his confession because, she claimed, the affair had been ongoing.
On January 21, 2010, Edwards admitted publicly that he is the father of Hunter's daughter Quinn.