As John Edwards' legal saga builds to an apparent climax at a Raleigh courthouse, the woman who tipped the National Enquirer to his affair has spilled the details in a story for the Huffington Post.
Pigeon O'Brien, who has been living in Asheville, describes how she'd been a friend of the woman then named Lisa Druck since the 1980s. After Druck changed her name to Rielle Hunter, and got involved with a man named John from North Carolina, O'Brien found herself keeping an increasingly uncomfortable secret.
Leaks spouted from various sources. Her phone rang with queries. That's when she says she decided to spill what she knew.
"I made one phone call simply to take the pressure off myself because I couldn't live with it anymore," O'Brien told me this morning.
The Enquirer contracted O'Brien to silence -- she said she doesn't recall how much she was paid -- and went on to expose the affair in 2007. The next year it disclosed that he had fathered Hunter's daughter.
A grand jury in Raleigh is reportedly near the end of a two-year investigation into whether Edwards violated campaign finance laws in covering up the affair. This week the former U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate added former White House counsel Greg Craig to his legal team.
Hunter has been living in Charlotte with her daughter. Edwards is holed up at home in Chapel Hill. O'Brien is watching the story unfold from the sidelines.
"I just think it's important to realize the truth comes out in a million different ways," she said.
Pigeon O'Brien, who has been living in Asheville, describes how she'd been a friend of the woman then named Lisa Druck since the 1980s. After Druck changed her name to Rielle Hunter, and got involved with a man named John from North Carolina, O'Brien found herself keeping an increasingly uncomfortable secret.
Leaks spouted from various sources. Her phone rang with queries. That's when she says she decided to spill what she knew.
"I made one phone call simply to take the pressure off myself because I couldn't live with it anymore," O'Brien told me this morning.
The Enquirer contracted O'Brien to silence -- she said she doesn't recall how much she was paid -- and went on to expose the affair in 2007. The next year it disclosed that he had fathered Hunter's daughter.
A grand jury in Raleigh is reportedly near the end of a two-year investigation into whether Edwards violated campaign finance laws in covering up the affair. This week the former U.S. senator and Democratic presidential candidate added former White House counsel Greg Craig to his legal team.
Hunter has been living in Charlotte with her daughter. Edwards is holed up at home in Chapel Hill. O'Brien is watching the story unfold from the sidelines.
"I just think it's important to realize the truth comes out in a million different ways," she said.
