Tuesday, June 9, 2026

Barbara Walters Had A Secret Meeting with Rielle Hunter In Her NYC Apartment Three Years Ago

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So. Barbara Walters had Rielle Hunter, John Edwards’ mistress, over to her posh New York City apartment three years ago. It was a  secret meeting. Hunter writes in “What Really Happened”: “She was really angling hard for me to talk to her.” The whole thing was off the record. Hunter went because she wanted to see how Barbara lived. Barbara wanted Rielle for “20/20.” She brought her friend Mimi Hockman and baby Quinn. Walters she says, used the fact that Hunter knew the daughter of her agent, Mort Janklow, as bait to get Hunter come to lunch at all.

Hunter writes in her book, “What Really Happened,” that she backed off of Walters’ advances when “20/20,” she says, “rolled out the red carpet for the Youngs”–Andrew and Cheri–“allowing them to spew their BS on national TV. Of course, Barbara screaming at me on the phone, trying to bully me into doing her interview, also didn’t do her any favors.”

Ironically, Hunter has now been on “20/20” and has a deal with ABC for multiple appearances. Elsewhere in the book. Hunter writes that John Edwards was obsessed with comments George Stephanopolous made around that time about Edwards being the possible father of Hunter’s baby. Now this week, Hunter will appear with Stephanopolous on “Good Morning America.” That should be pretty interesting.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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