page_title: John Edwards extramarital affair
section_title: Hotel encounter with reporters
hierarchical_section_title: John Edwards extramarital affair / Hotel encounter with reporters
caption_attribution_description: Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California
context_page_description: John Edwards is a former United States Senator from North Carolina and a Democratic Party vice-presidential and presidential candidate. In August 2008, Edwards admitted to an extramarital affair, which was initially reported in late-2007 by the National Enquirer but was given little attention outside the tabloid press and political blogosphere. The Enquirer cited claims from an anonymous source that Edwards had engaged in an affair with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker hired to work for his presidential campaign, and that Hunter had given birth to a child from the relationship. ABC News reported that Andrew Young, a member of Edwards' campaign team, stated that Edwards asked him to "Get a doctor to fake the DNA results ... and to steal a diaper from the baby so he could secretly do a DNA test to find out if this [was] indeed his child."
  The allegations were published in late-2007 and were initially denied by both Edwards and Hunter. Young claimed paternity of Hunter's daughter, although no father is listed on the child's birth certificate, and Young has subsequently denied it.
context_section_description: According to Perel, the National Enquirer had received information stating that Edwards would be visiting Hunter and her child at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, on the evening of July 21, 2008, and the paper dispatched several reporters to the hotel. The team of National Enquirer reporters encountered Edwards on the hotel premises sometime after 2 a.m. on the morning of July 22. According to Perel, Edwards, who was not a registered guest of the hotel, retreated from the reporters to a washroom, where he remained until being escorted from the premises by hotel security. The encounter between Edwards and the National Enquirer reporters was later confirmed by a hotel guard interviewed by Fox News. Edwards' spokespeople did not respond to Fox's request for comment on the incident.
  In articles published immediately after the hotel encounter, the National Enquirer claimed to be in possession of evidence showing that Edwards had visited Hunter and her child in the Hilton for several hours, including a videotape of Hunter entering the room, where she allegedly met Edwards, and one of Edwards leaving the same room. However, the paper declined a request from Fox News to release photos or videotape of the incident. In an interview with Radar, Perel said that the National Enquirer would release the photos when "the time is right." The National Enquirer later stated that it had filed a "criminal complaint" against the hotel's security over its conduct during the encounter, but the Beverly Hills Police Department said that there was no criminal complaint and that only an "incident report" was under investigation.
  When Edwards was questioned at a New Orleans event on July 23, 2008, he stated, "I have no idea what you're asking about. I've responded, consistently, to these tabloid allegations by saying I don't respond to these lies and you know that ... and I stand by that." On the same day, Hunter appeared on the television program, Extra, describing the National Enquirer story as "completely unfounded and ridiculous".
caption: The Beverly Hilton Hotel, where Edwards encountered the National Enquirer reporters
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