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Rielle Hunter And Her Daughter Quinn Talk About Their Relationship With John Edwards 10 Years After Headline-Making Affair

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 07:47 PST, Jul 22, 2016

Rielle Hunter is speaking out about her relationship with former North Carolina senator John Edwards. In an interview that aired on Good Morning America, Hunter revealed that the father of her 8-year-old daughter, Quinn, is very much still a part of her life.

“He’s family, I absolutely love him,” Hunter told ABC News. “I will always love him.”

Hunter, who appeared on the news show with Quinn, went on to say that the onetime presidential candidate “has a soft spot” for his youngest child, whose birth name is Frances Quinn Hunter. Rielle also said she and John are still “very good friends and great co-parents” to Quinn, and that they both want the best for their daughter.

Quinn, an avid rider who recently qualified for the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Pony Finals, says she sees her father as often as possible. You can see Rielle and Quinn talking about John Edwards in the video below.

Rielle Hunter worked as a videographer for John Edwards’ campaign when her affair with the married senator made headlines in 2007 as his wife, Elizabeth, battled breast cancer. Hunter became pregnant and Edwards ultimately dropped out of the race—and politics altogether—in the aftermath of the affair. Edwards did not admit paternity of Quinn until almost two years later. His wife, Elizabeth, died in 2010.

Hunter explained to ABC’s Amy Robach why she has decided to come back into the spotlight years after the scandal.

“You can’t go away,” Rielle said.”When you make a mistake you have to take a responsibility for it, say you’re sorry and move on.”

Rielle Hunter’s new interview with ABC News went a lot better than a previous sit-down she had with longtime journalist Barbara Walters and the panel on The View. When Hunter published her tell-all book, What Really Happened, in 2012, she was subjected to a 15-minute grilling by Barbara and the View crew. Hunter was called out for being a mistress and for “bashing” the deceased wife of her former lover.

“I’m not a mistress, I’m a mom and I don’t want to hide,” Hunter said, before then-View co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck reminded her that she had an affair with a married man.

“Truth be told, you were a mistress,” Hasselbeck said. “I mean he was married to Elizabeth Edwards to her death.”

Whoopi Goldberg also called Hunter out for trashing “a dead lady” in her book. She also told Rielle that airing the details of the affair while painting a bad picture of Elizabeth Edwards was “kind of heartless.”

“You had unprotected sex with a married man and had a baby and then allowed people to pretend it wasn’t happening,” the View host said. “You put an entire nation in a very awkward position.”

After that grilling, Walters told Hunter she had “a bone to pick” with her over a passage in her book in which she alleged that Barbara once yelled and bullied her because she canceled an interview with her to do one with Oprah Winfrey instead. In the same interview, Walters asked Rielle if Edwards’ grown children, Cate, Emma-Claire and Jack, ever had an issue with the things she said about their mother.

Nearly 10 years after her headline-making affair with John Edwards, Rielle Hunter is writing a different type of book. Hunter and her daughter Quinn wrote a children’s book about finding happiness. The book is titled Howie Do It and it’s written by Rielle and illustrated by Quinn. In an interview with Extra, Rielle and Quinn talked about the book, which aims to empower kids to find happiness in their lives.

“The horses have been very, very healing,” Rielle said of Quinn’s horse, Howie. Rielle Hunter also called her daughter Quinn the “love of my life and the light of my life.”

[Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images]

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