JOHN EDWARDS and RIELLE HUNTER and BUNNY MELLON

Back in 2008 the John Edwards- Rielle Hunter affair was the end of his candidacy for President of the United States.  Meryl Gordon's book on Bunny Mellon dedicates much of Part 17, Chapter 25 begins the details of Bunny's involvement in helping candidate Edwards hide his mistress Rielle who was pregnant with his child, from the American public through donations that clearly went beyond the campaign limits, though Bunny claimed not to know what happened to the money to a point or that this candidate who she loved and felt could be the next John F. Kennedy, had a mistress. 

Probably the reason Bunny remained unpunished was that she was 95 years old when she was so sure that Edwards would be the next president - and should be - since she was a patriotic liberal Democrat - and deserved the money for "personal expenses"  and a couple years closer to 100 when the game was over. Andrew Young was so willing to do anything to help his candidate win that after the 2006 meeting of Rielle and John that began their affair, he collaborated with a scheme to funnel money to Edwards. Young eventually even claimed to be the father of Rielle's child.

Edward's wife Elizabeth battled breast cancer at the time and as a result she got all the sympathy.  How could Edwards have an affair when his faithful wife she fought for her life?

Edwards hired Rielle to produce campaign videos for him and continued to pop up to see him on the campaign trail. 

The way around the campaign donations limit was, according to Gordon's book, sneaky fun for Bunny.  She was paying the living expenses for Rielle, thus keeping her so Edwards would not have to, by sending checks that were supposed to be for the purchase of antiques and furniture to one person who then routed the money to Young and to Young's wife's bank account.

The National Enquirer broke the story of the affair and then the "love child," and terminally ill Elizabeth separated from her husband.  Edwards only admitted the truth about his dual life after Andrew Young's book was ready to hit the shelves. In my opinion, he made a mess of things by continually lying to the public with his wife at his side, denying everything, though I can understand he at least didn't want to publically humiliate her.

Bunny's checks were monthly and for increasing amounts - $175,000,  $200,000 - and were not for the campaign itself.  Well, the FBI became involved.  Bunny said that she had no problem with a man having a mistress, nor did she think having a mistress would make a man less eligible for candidacy, but she thought a man should afford his mistress on his own.

Because Edwards and Bunny had become friends, frequently speaking on the phone, he and his daughter imagined they would be welcome to her funeral - but they were relegated to an overflow tent.


* Rielle Hunter is a self made woman who changed her name from Lisa Jo Druck and is said to have made the first pass at Edwards.

RIELLE HUNTER'S MEMOIR : SHE WASN'T JOHN EDWARDS FIRST MISTRESS

Linking to one of many articles, this one by MEG KINNARD, on RIELLE's new book, called "What Really Happened: John Edwards, Our Daughter and Me," just out, which is about her romance with politician John Edwards. This link has a good picture, and a long transcript you can read, to form your own opinions.

RIELLE HUNTER INTERVIEW ON WIRED : THE TONE OF THIS ARTICLE IS OPEN AND POSITIVE

This ten internet page article by Lisa Depaulo for Wired, with beautiful photographs of Reille Hunter with daughter Quinn, by photographer Mark Seliger, is much more open and positive about Rielle as a person. Here she is seen as a beautiful loving mother who is not living high and mighty. Sadly some of the comments left below the article accuse her of being delusional and a liar. This interview is a testimonial to what her thoughts and feelings were about her relationship, her daughter, and all that money coming her way, which she says was given to her by Andrew Young, from sources she wasn't immediately aware of.


(Click on the title to get to the link!)

RIELLE HUNTER and JOHN EDWARDS : MISTRESS OF THE MONTH

The trial of John Edwards for possible use of money given to him by two grand supporters, Bunny Mellon (the multimillionaire who also designed the rose garden for the White House in the President John F. Kennedy era) and Fred Baron, in an illegal way, was very interesting to me. He was accused of using the money to hide his mistress Rielle Hunter. Some say that hiding her was in fact a campaign strategy.

I believe it that Edwards' covered up his involvement with Rielle to protect his wife of many years, Elizabeth, who had breast cancer and soon died of it. He may have fallen in love and /or lust with another woman, a very different woman than his wife, but that doesn't mean he was totally insensitive to that fact that the mother of his older children was dying of a terrible disease or that they had a long history together.

Rielle was strategically moved around and given/paid about $9000 a month to live on. She gave birth to a child as a result of the affair, a daughter, who is about four.

The article from ABC news that I'm linking to paints Reille as woman who is quirky. Some other articles I've read about her would make her out to be a woman with a shady and sad past, as if she is the bad woman who brought the man down. Isn't that typical stereotyping of the mistress, as if it doesn't take two to tango?

An excerpt that focuses on her reinvention of herself, like so many people who are coming out of nowhere and striving to achieve: "Hunter was born in 1964 and named Lisa Jo Druck. She married Alexander Hunter in 1991 and took his last name, becoming Lisa Jo Hunter. In 1994, she legally changed her first name to Rielle.

But it doesn't stop there. On her daughter's birth certificate (which does not include the girl's father's name) Hunter used the alias Rielle Jaya James Druck.

While Hunter was receiving hush money from Edwards' donors, aide Andrew Young testified, she received an American Express credit card in the fake name Jaya James. She picked the name, she said, because it sounded like Jesse James, the famed Western outlaw. When the card arrived, it read "Randy Jaya James" and Hunter refused to use it. It was later reprinted "R. Jaya James."

I'm linking to an ABC news article about Rielle which attempts to explain that she may not have been called to testify because she's kooky, into astrology (so many people are! Why wasn't Nancy Reagan on trial for that?) and so on.

JOHN EDWARDS TRIAL : HE'S FREE !

Linking now to a breaking news article on the trial of JOHN EDWARDS, from CNN Wire, that includes a video of his after-trial statement.

"Jurors emerged from deliberations Thursday afternoon to announce they had reached a decision on the one count, but none of the others. Eagles ordered them back into the jury room to continue deliberating, but they returned less than an hour later to announce the deadlock.

"This was win for John Edwards, and there will be a lot of questions about why this case was brought," CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said after the announcement.

Edwards ran for president in 2004, when he ended up as the Democrats' nominee for vice president, and again in 2008. His attorneys argued he was guilty of being a bad husband to his wife, Elizabeth, who died in 2010, but had committed no crime."

PDF FILE OF WIFE ELIZABETH EDWARD'S WILL HUSBAND POLITICIAN JOHN IS LEFT OUT

Elizabeth Edward's, ex-wife of John Edwards, has lost her brave battle with cancer, and her personal estate is worth over a million dollars... Eleven days before she died, she signed this will which does not mention her estranged husband, but leaves all her worth to her children, with her oldest daughter as executor.

John Edwards probably has wealth of his own and it is fitting that Elizabeth leave what she has to her three children. Some news reports suggested though that Elizabeth had prevented John from marrying his mistress, with whom he has a 2 year old, Rielle Hunter, but that's stupid. A deceased person cannot prevent living people from marrying or a divorced spouse from marrying.

A person who lives in the public eye, especially if they are running for high office, has no privacy and in modern times it is very difficult to hide an extracurricular love/sex lifestyle.

Elizabeth was publically shamed by her husband and his mistress (something I do not agree with), though we are not sure really what happened first that lead to the public disclosure.

Perhaps this whole news story is privacy invasion and is beyond John Edwards and Reille Hunter not having class.

Missy

BUNNY MELLON SET UP JOHN EDWARDS EX MISTRESS RIELLE HUNTER.

"The doyenne of high society is the widow of Paul Mellon, a billionaire art patron and racehorse breeder. She is famously camera-shy and keeps a residence in the Jumeirah Essex House on Central Park South and an estate in Upperville Virginia, where she reportedly became fond of then-first-time presidential candidate John Edwards in 2006."

You can link to this full article from DNAinfo Manhattan, story by Nicole Bode by clicking your mouse on the title of this post...

Missy here: Paul Mellon had a mistress who attended his funeral. I'm sure Bunny knew about her and she would not deny Paul his mistress. I admire Bunny for that!

Rielle Hunter is writing a "tell-all book." I don't know if I admire her for that or not; depends on how she puts it. Another article I found on line suggests that Bunny (Rachel Lowe Lambert Lloyd Mellon), hieress to the Listerine fortune, bought Hunter a $28,000 BMW and a $2,900-a-month home to rent near Chapel Hill, NC!

HERE IS A CASE OF A WOMAN FRIEND OF A MAN KEEPING A MISTRESS FOR A MAN!

JOHN EDWARDS ADMITS THE KID IS HIS!

Breaking Yahoo news.... JOHN EDWARDS ADMITS THE CHILD HIS MISTRESS has given birth to is his.

EX JOHN EDWARDS MISTRESS RIELLE HUNTER - NEWS UPDATE

Click on the title - thanks to Yahoo News and Associated Press! An Update on Rielle Hunter and John Edwards by Alysia Patterson.