It was hyped as “explosive” and a behind-the-scenes insight into the affair between disgraced senator John Edwards and Rielle Hunter.
There was predictably the media blitz, with Hunter telling her side of the story on various TV shows, to anyone that would listen.
But in the end, it appears no one wanted to hear or know about the scandalous affair that ended a marriage and saw Edwards political career in ruins.
According to the New York Post , Hunter’s tell-all “What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter And Me” has sold a measly 6,000 copies.
Boookscan told the paper that the tome sold enough copies to make it onto the New York Times best-seller list but “not big enough to make the major houses sorry” for not choosing it.
Hunter was forced to release the book through Dallas-based boutique publisher BenBella Books after she was turned down from every major publishing house.
The 48-year-old was paid a small advance for the tell-all.
After all the hurt they caused and not to mention a political career left in ruins, Rielle Hunter and John Edwards relationship wasn’t meant to be.
Speaking on ABC’s “Good Morning America” on Tuesday, Hunter revealed that the couple ended their relationship last week, just days after her new book debuted and she went public about how they met, hid their affair and had a baby girl together.
“We are a family, but as of the end of last week John Edwards and I are no longer a couple. Not at all,” Hunter told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America.”
When asked if she still loved Edwards, Hunter replied, “I do.”
Stephanopoulos asked if Edwards still loved her and she said, “You have to ask him. I think he does.”
Nevertheless, the couple, she said, were worn down by the scrutiny and pressure brought on by their high profile affair that began while Edwards was running for the 2008 presidential nomination
“For me, for my part in it, it’s because I’m no longer interested in hiding, hiding our relationship, not living out,” she said. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’ve had a lot of media scrutiny. It’s complicated and it’s hard. It wears you down after a while.”
Though Hunter refused to reveal who actually pulled the plug on their relationship (she said they decided to “together to end it”), it sounds like a classic case of a woman wanting more, and the man not being willing to commit.
If ever a Mills & Boon novel was to be written about the John Edwards and Rielle Hunter affair, then it would read something, like, er, well, Hunter’s own memoir.
In extracts of her tell-all tome What Really Happened obtained by RadarOnline, Hunter describes in lurid detail the first night Edwards seduced her, adding that energy between them “was huge and unstoppable”.
Oh, and her romance writing doesn’t stop there…
In one passage, which is sure to have you reaching for the sick bucket, she recalls: “And then a moment came while we were talking when something in my heart clicked and I surrendered. I took off my teacher hat, let go of all my resistance to him and let him lead. And lead he did. He led me toward the most extraordinary night of my life. There was a lot of talk, a lot of laughter and zero sleep.”
Ironically, Hunter’s tell-all tale was rejected by all major publishers and is being released on Tuesday, June 26 by a small Dallas-based company called Ben Bella. Perhaps the big publishing houses felt as queasy about releasing this sordid story as we do reading it.
Meanwhile, new pictures have emerged of the pair, along with their daughter, Quinn, kicking back and enjoying life in a 4,000-a-week beach house.
Edwards and Hunter can be seen drinking wine on the balcony and playing on the beach with Quinn, suggesting that the trio are all one big happy family and Edwards and Hunter’s passion continues unabated.
Given the tangled web they weaved and the heartbreak they caused, the new images may leave some with a rather putrid taste in their mouths.
John Edwards was once heralded as the golden boy of politics. But he fell by his sword and ambition got the better of him.
Now, he faces a criminal charge of abusing $1 million funds to hide his secret lover, and his real personality is coming to light during his trial this week.
According to his former aide, Andrew Young, Edwards called his mistress Rielle Hunter a “crazy slut” when he learnt she was pregnant with his child.
Young took to the stand for the second time yesterday, telling the court Edwards was ”very angry and concerned” when he found out about the baby in 2007 and told Young there was only a one-in-three chance the baby was his.
Young also said he worried about secretly using money from wealthy donors to support the former U.S. Senator’s pregnant mistress during the candidate’s 2008 presidential bid.
“It just all seemed crazy. It felt and smelled wrong,” he said.
Story continues to develop today….we’re sure there are bound to be more startling revelations.
Was he a devoted father, who was trying to protect his family from the humiliation of his extramarital affair? Or a man hellbent on becoming the next president at any cost?
These were the opening arguments that were set forth in the first day of the John Edwards criminal trial on charges that he violated campaign finance laws.
The former presidential candidate is accused of accepting more than $900,000 from benefactors to pay for expenses of his mistress and hide the affair from his family — revelations that could have derailed his bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Andrew Young, the onetime trusted Edwards aide who is now the prosecution’s chief witness, began testimony Monday in a packed courtroom, talking about his close relationship with Edwards, his first suspicions of Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter, a campaign videographer, and his meetings with an elderly heiress who he said offered to do all she could to help elect Edwards president. Young is expected to be on the witness stand for much of today, and we will be updating this post at the end of proceedings.
A jury will decide whether nearly $1 million paid by Edwards benefactors Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a 101-year-old banking heiress from Virginia, and Fred Baron, a now-deceased Texas lawyer, to cover Hunter’s living and travel expenses were illegal campaign contributions or gifts to help a friend deal with a personal problem.
“If the affair went public, it would destroy any chance he had to be president, and he knew it,” Justice Department lawyer David V. Harbach II said in his opening statement. Edwards’ response to possible disclosure of the affair, he added, was “deny, deceit and manipulation.”
Meanwhile, Politico have put together a comprehensive list of the key dates in Edwards sordid tale.
The report…
Oct. 10, 2007: The National Enquirer publishes its first report on Edwards’s affair but doesn’t release the name of the woman. Edwards’s spokesperson says the allegations are “false, absolute nonsense.”
Oct. 11, 2007: “The story is false. It’s completely untrue, ridiculous,” Edwards tells reporters.
Oct. 22, 2007: Edwards has been having an affair with his campaign staff videographer, Rielle Hunter, the Enquirer reports.
Dec. 12, 2007: A pregnant Hunter tells the Enquirer that Andrew Young, a longtime Edwards aide, is the father of the baby. “This has no relationship to nor does it involve John Edwards in any way,” Rielle says.
Dec. 31, 2007: The Enquirer reports that there is a massive coverup taking place to protect the former senator.
Jan. 30, 2008: Edwards drops out of the race.
July 22, 2008: The Enquirer catches Edwards trying to leave the Beverly Hilton at 2:40 a.m. after visiting Hunter and their daughter.
July 23, 2008: “I don’t talk about these tabloids. They’re tabloid trash and just full of lies,” Edwards tells reporters in Houston.
Aug. 8, 2008: Edwards admits to the affair, telling ABC News’s Bob Woodruff that his political success “fed a self-focus, an egotism, a narcissism that leads you to believe that you can do whatever you want.” But he denies again that the baby is his.
Aug. 6, 2009: Hunter testifies before a grand jury about her relationship with Edwards.
Jan. 21, 2010: Edwards owns up to being the father of Hunter’s daughter. “It was wrong for me ever to deny she was my daughter, and, hopefully, one day, when she understands, she will forgive me,” he said in a statement.
Jan. 27, 2010: Reports emerge that Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, have separated.
Jan. 28, 2010: Young tells ABC’s Bob Woodruff that he has a sex tape Edwards and Hunter made a few months before the Iowa caucuses.
Dec. 7, 2010: Elizabeth Edwards dies after battling cancer.
June 3, 2011: Edwards is indicted on six federal felony charges, including conspiring to violate campaign finance laws.
Feb. 23, 2012: The civil case between Hunter and Young is settled, with Hunter declared the owner of the sex tape, which the court orders to be destroyed.
April 23, 2012: After a number of delays, including one due to a “life-threatening” medical condition, Edwards’s trial begins.
Thankfully, we will never see the sex tape between Rielle Hunter and John Edwards.
In a court settlement filed on Thursday, former Edwards aide Andrew Young and his wife have agreed to give up their claim on the property, which has been in a courthouse vault of a North Carolina courthouse.
The tape will now be returned to Rielle and copies will be destroyed within 30 days, following the settlement of a lawsuit over ownership of the video.
We think the world will be a much better place without seeing that, wouldn’t you agree?
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