Hunter says she, Edwards love one another

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 15 (UPI) -- The ex-mistress of one-time U.S. presidential hopeful John Edwards says they love each other, and she didn't want him to run for president.

"I know he loves me. I have never had any doubt at all about that. We love each other very much," Rielle Hunter told GQ Magazine in an interview released Monday. "And that hasn't changed, and I believe that will be till death do us part. ... There's a lot of passion there."

In January, Edwards, a former U.S. senator for North Carolina, said he was taking responsibility for the child he conceived with Hunter, a campaign videographer with whom he had a liaison.

In the GQ interview, Hunter described events beginning in 2006 when she met Edwards, his denial of paternity of 2-year-old Frances Quinn Hunter, the convoluted plan for Edwards' aide Andrew Young to claim he sired the child, to the end of the affair in July 2008.

Breaking the silence she had kept since the story broke in 2008, Hunter said she felt comfortable talking now "because Johnny went public and admitted paternity. I didn't feel like I could ever speak until he did."

At times it was difficult to keep her silence, Hunter said during the interview at her home in Charlotte, N.C.

"It's hard to know that people are out there speaking over and over and over again untruths," she said. "(Just) for starters, I never hit on Johnny. I'm not a predator, I'm not a gold digger, I'm not the stalker. I didn't have any power in that way in our relationship. He held all the power."

Edwards is "very kindhearted and sweet ... very honest and truthful," qualities that were hidden when the scandal broke, Hunter said.

Hunter said she didn't think Edwards should run for president "because of his entire life."

When Edwards was vetted for a vice presidential campaign, "he had a lot of problems going on that nobody knew about," Hunter said. "So no, I didn't think he should run."

She said she didn't think Edwards would be indicted for anything related to their affair.

Hunter told GQ she spent "a lot of time" during her 9 hours before a grand jury answering questions about Young -- who worked to hide the affair and came to possess a sex tape made by Edwards and Hunter.

She said she has "such compassion" for Edwards' estranged wife, Elizabeth, who has terminal cancer.

"I watched my father die of cancer. It's heart-wrenching to me," Hunter said, adding, "it's also sad to me, her unwillingness to take responsibility for her part in the marriage. And her unwillingness to face the truth."

Hunter said her "stint" as a mistress ended in July 2008, when the scandal was made public.

"And then our relationship evolved into something different."