HotmailEdwards ex-mistress rejects paternity test
Former presidential candidate denies fathering child, willing to be tested
 Chuck Olsen / AP In this image made from video, Rielle Hunter films John Edwards after a rally in New Hampshire December 2006. Edwards' political action committee paid $100,000 in a four-month span to a newly formed firm run by Hunter, who directed the production of four Web videos. On Friday, Edwards admitted having and affair with Hunter. |
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WASHINGTON - The ex-mistress of former presidential candidate John Edwards said Saturday she will not participate in DNA testing to establish the paternity of her daughter.
Rielle Hunter's lawyer, Robert Gordon, said his client is a private individual who wishes to maintain the privacy of herself and her daughter.
In a statement, Gordon said that Hunter ruled out any kind of testing that could establish the identity of her daughter's father.
"Rielle will not participate in DNA testing or any other invasion of her or her daughter's privacy now or in the future," he said.
On Friday, Edwards admitted to having an extramarital affair with Hunter in 2006 but denied that he was the father of Hunter's 5-month-old daughter. Edwards said he was prepared to take a paternity test to prove he was not the father.
Hunter's decision means the issue will remain an open question.
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Edwards, a former North Carolina senator who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 2004, confessed to ABC News that he had lied repeatedly about the affair with Hunter, then 42. In an interview which aired on ABC's "Nightline" on Friday night, Edwards said he would be willing to take a paternity test to put the issue to rest but wasn't sure whether Hunter would be willing to.
"I am and have been willing to take any test necessary to establish the fact that I am not the father of any baby, and I am truly hopeful that a test will be done so this fact can be definitively established," Edwards said.
The National Enquirer first reported on the affair in October 2007, in the run-up to the Democratic primaries, and Edwards denied it.
Last month, the Enquirer carried another story — the blaring headline referred to an Edwards "love child" — stating that its reporters had accosted Edwards in a Los Angeles hotel where he had met with Hunter after her child's birth. Edwards called it "tabloid trash."
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