Rielle Hunter's Sister Speaks About Hunter's Relationship with John Edwards

Roxanne Marshall, sister of Rielle Hunter, opens up to INSIDE EDITION about Hunter's affair with politician John Edwards. INSIDE EDITION has the story.

Rielle Hunter's sister is talking about the first time she found out that Hunter was having an affair with presidential candidate John Edwards.

Growing up, Roxanne Marshall and Hunter, born Lisa Jo, were not just sisters, they were best friends. But she could only watch as her kid sister became embroiled in the biggest political scandal of the decade.

"It shocks me, it saddens me, it embarrasses me," Marshall tells INSIDE EDITION.

The affair began in early 2006. Hunter was having a drink at the Loews Regency Hotel in New York City when John Edwards walked in.

"She did go up to him and discussed his aura, his light around him, and his hotness. Not in the Paris Hilton fashion, she meant your aura is hot and you don't come across on TV that way and I'm here to help you."

"And what happened next?" asks INSIDE EDITION's Paul Boyd.

"I guess they went upstairs," she says.

"It happened that quickly?"

"He was very smitten with her, obviously," says Marshall.

Edwards found Hunter a job as his campaign videographer and Marshall says it became obvious they were having an affair.

"What do you see when you watch those videos your sister made?" asks Boyd.

"I knew from watching the very first webisode when I saw them flirting on camera that something was definitely going on...I could tell then and there."

Hunter called him, "Johnny," "Love-lips," and another nickname that hasn't been heard until now: "Her nickname for him was 'The King,' " says Marshall.

 

She tells INSIDE EDITION that Hunter bought Edwards a private cell phone that he kept hidden from his wife. They called it the "bat phone."

But it was the bat phone that would blow their affair wide open.

"The phone was in his suitcase, and it rang, and Mrs. Edwards went into the suitcase picked up the phone, didn't say hello, but Rielle started talking very lovingly, thinking Mr. Edwards was on the line. Mrs. Edwards went right in and threw the phone at Mr. Edwards."

Edwards denied that he was having an affair and his wife believed him. But a short time later the wife and the mistress came face-to-face, at a campaign event.

"Mrs. Edwards had watched the interaction between Hunter and Mr. Edwards from afar, and it clicked right when she came face-to-face with her that this was her husband's mistress."

"Were any words exchanged?" asks Boyd.

"I believe Mrs. Edwards asked her to please leave," Marshall says.

Edwards admitted the affair to his wife and promised to end it and fire Hunter, but the affair continued.

Edwards stood side-by-side with his wife when she announced that her cancer had returned and it was terminal, but behind the scenes, according to Marshall, he and Hunter were planning a life together after Elizabeth's death.

"Did your sister think she would live in the mansion once Mrs. Edwards was out of the picture?"

"Yes, I believe that she thought once Mrs. Edwards passed away that she would the new 'First Lady.' "

But when Hunter became pregnant, Marshall says, Edwards was enraged.

"Did John Edwards ask your sister to have an abortion?"

"Yes, he did ask her to have an abortion," Marshall says.

"On multiple occasions?"

"I would say several."

It is now known that Edwards went to extraordinary lengths to keep his love child a secret, even concocting the lie that the baby's father was campaign staffer Andrew Young.

"She did not want Andrew Young claiming he was the father, she did not want to go along with that," says Marshall.

"According to Andrew Young's book, your sister threatened to go to the press with this information if John Edwards didn't talk to her and give her everything she wanted."

"She did that several times, anytime she couldn't get in touch with him."

"John Edwards didn't call or send anything the day that baby Quinn was born. Did that surprise you?

"I thought it was very sad my sister was in the hospital by herself with Quinn and Mr. Edwards couldn't be bothered to pick up the phone."

"What was Hunter's reaction to John Edwards finally admitting that he is the father of that baby?"

"She was very happy. What mother wouldn't be elated to know that the father has acknowledged the paternity?"

INSIDE EDITION has learned that Rielle Hunter and John Edwards have renewed their friendship that began at New York's Regency Hotel, nothing physical is going on apparently, but they are talking. We have also learned that they've reached a private deal to share joint custody of their daughter and that Edwards has paid a financial settlement that Hunter is quote "Happy with."

"Does your sister still love John Edwards?" asks Paul Boyd.

"Oh yes she still loves him and I'm sure that they'll be together one day," says Marshall.

"You really believe that?"

"Oh yes I do."

John Edwards is now officially separated from his wife Elizabeth.