Elizabeth Edwards has "bad energy," claimed the woman who had an affair with two-time presidential candidate John Edwards, according to Monday's online edition of Newsweek magazine.
Rielle Hunter, the mistress at the center of the political storm around Edwards, held the former North Carolina senator in high regard. However, the party girl-turned-healer-turned-videographer was apparently less generous with her former paramour's wife.
"I've only met her once," Hunter told Newsweek reporter Jonathan Darman in late 2006 during a lunch in which she mistakenly cast him as a friend. "She does not give off good energy. She didn't make eye contact with me."
Weeks later, Hunter was fired from her job documenting Edwards on the campaign trail. She called the reporter to tell him, saying Edwards did not defend her when she was relieved of her $114,000-plus job. But her scorn for Elizabeth Edwards was evident, blaming her for her misfortune.
"Someday, the truth about her is going to come out," Hunter told Newsweek.
Darman, who first met Hunter in Iowa in July 2006 while she was filming the documentary series for the Web, said the woman described Edwards as an old soul who had barely tapped into his potential, but had the power to be a "transformational leader" on par with Mahatmas Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
"He has the power to change the world," he quoted her as saying.
Hunter's affair with Edwards was busted open last month when he was caught visiting Hunter and her baby at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Hunter gave birth in February 2008 to Frances Quinn Hunter, but no father is listed on the birth certificate. Edwards denies the baby is his and an Edwards aide, Andrew Young, claimed paternity last December. Hunter, her baby, Young, his wife and their three children currently live in Santa Barbara.
While the affair had been alleged by the tabloid papers as early as October 2007, the July 22 visit was confirmed by FOXNews.com days later. Last Friday, Edwards admitted he had had an affair but denied that he went to the hotel to meet Hunter and their alleged love child.
Edwards has said he would take a paternity test to prove he's not the baby's father, but Hunter has said she won't submit her child to a DNA test. A close Edwards ally, attorney Fred Baron, has been paying Hunter a reported $15,000 per month despite the relationship having allegedly ended in late 2006.
Hunter told Newsweek she believed Edwards to be a man fighting between his ego and his desire to serve the world.
In admitting his affair, Edwards told ABC News last week that his "becoming a national public figure" created "a self-focus, an egotism, a narcissism that leads you to believe that — that you can do whatever you want. You're invincible. And there — and there will be no consequences."
In late spring 2007, Darman met with Hunter again, who when asked if she were dating anyone, said, "I'm in love." She would not say with whom, but told Darman, "Maybe someday we'll all be friends."
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