> tonight, rielle hunter tells all. but we begin with "the big story." "> > tonight, rielle hunter tells all. but we begin with "the big story." " property="og:description"> > tonight, rielle hunter tells all. but we begin with "the big story." ">
is she sorry? and the mayor of new york. this is "piers morgan tonight." >> tonight, rielle hunter tells all. but we begin with "the big story." nora effron classic movies, audiences still laugh and also cry along with them. she was a play right and best selling author and blogger. her best legacy may be her family and long-time friends who are all paying tribute to her today. welcome to you both. i've been struck, i have to say, about the incredible outpouring of the emotions, tributes, of grief from so many people, from such a broad spectrum. not just of entertainment, but of all almost every part of american culture and around the world. it's been an incredible reaction for her passing. >> i'm not at all surprised. she received an enormous amount of devotion from her friends. she was dominated for three oscars, but if there was an oscar for friendship, she would have had a shelf full of them. i remember when i was about to launch, she was an amazing sounding board. she's written over 100 blogs and she became kind of an evangelist for the site. and she did that, whatever her friends next endeavor undertaking was. >> barbara, she had magazines, novels, movies, a remarkable range of talent she is had in her multifacetted career. what was she really like away from the public face that we knew? what was she like as a few things? >> let me tell you a few things. we were totally shocked, all of us, except maybe a few people. obviously her husband and sons. because we knew that she was ill. we heard she was ill, but we didn't know how ill. when we heard about it yesterday, i mean, we gasped. this is a woman who died of leukemia at 71. so it's taken us now two days in which we can even get our breath because we just didn't know. and there was just some -- you mentioned some of the things. she could be romantic, you know, "sleepless in seattle" one of the most romantic films there was. she could be very honest. do you remember the whole orgasm scene in "when harry met sally" the scene in which she faked an orgasm and the woman in the next table said i'll have what she's having. and she was very honest about her own life. she talked a lot about aging. she wrote a book called "i hate my neck." and if you crossed her, as her first husband did, he cheated on her. what did she do? she said years earlier, her mother said take everythingexperience, you'll laugh about it later. there were all these different sides. as a friend, we had a not very distinguished club of sorts. we would meet every four or five weeks. did you ever come to our harpies? >> once. >> so we called ourselves the harpies. it was liz smith and cynthia mcfadden and peggy siegel. we would discuss everybody else's facelift. at christmas time, we would bring all the presents we didn't want and give them to each other. so in private life, there was also that tremendous wit, but great warmth and love. and i've got to mention her husband of 25 year who was a wonderful author himself. "wise guys" and "casino" and what a sweet and gentle man he was. and what a great marriage that was. >> yeah. that was certainly the great -- >> that is so true. and after her two previous marriages, his first marriage, there they were, they found each other. i just came from their home where so many friends had gathered and where nick is sort of looking at life without her. which is sort of amazing because they were inseparable. most marriages end in divorce. in fact, nora, who as barbara said is an incredible romantic, but also had a wry way of looking at the world famously said to me one morning when she thought we should launch a section in the huffington post said marriages comes and go yet divorce is forever. and there was an amazing relationship with mick and her two sons. above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim. it to just play a clip of some of the best moments of the great romantic comedies. she told the story of love and romance that went along with that better than anyone i've seen in hollywood. lease just take a trip down memory lane with nora. >> i was just taking her hand to help her out of a car. and i knew. it was like -- >> magic. >> magic. >> what? >> i just had a break through. >> what is it? >> for the first time, confronted with a horrible and insensitive person i knew exactly what i wanted to say and i said it. >> yes! oh! oh, god. oh. >> i'll have what she's having. >> the list goes on and on and on. barbara, i think one of her great talents was that she was a brilliant writer and could write very high brow stuff if she put her mind to it. and yet she was able to appeal to a really huge mainstream audience at the same time. that's quite a rare gift, isn't it? >> yeah. she was so honest about things. and you know, arianna and i were just talking. we're very close friends. we go back many years. we're kind of grieving together here, bhu she had known evidently she had this disease for five or six years and she wrote in a funny way, but a touching way about death. and we were just saying that some of the things that she did were so touching and funny. for example, she wrote about the things she said these are the things i won't miss -- dry skin, clarence thomas, the sound of a vacuum cleaner and panels on women in film. and then she said, these are the things that i will miss. coming over the bridge on the way to manhattan. pie, my kids and dick. so it's almost that she was telling us how to think and how to feel about her even now. >> you're right, she did write a lot about death for somebody who was 10 funny and so full of life. and part of it is that her sense that you should live every day as if it's your last day. she said you should eat your last meal every day. when the time comes to eat your last meal you'll probably not be feeling like it. >> and by the way, she was a great cook. one of the joys of going to their house where -- was that wonderful kitchen. she cooked comfort food. we had mashed sweet potatoes, root beer floats. all the things we swore we wouldn't eat. meatloaf. she was a wonderful cook herself. even when she wrote the book about "heartburn" about the marriage to carl bernstein, she gave recipes. there were so many different sides of her. the sardonic, the cynical, the funny, the loving. i mean, you name the adjective, and it fit her. and she was a great talent. you know, she had -- she was about to, i guess, have a broadway show produced this fall. i don't know whether it will happen or not. >> she said this about women as well, which i love. she said i tri to write parts for women that are as complicated as women actually are. i thought that was great in all her films. women could really relate to her because she really understood women. >> yes, and she was a champion of women. she really believed that women could do anything and at anytime. when rita wilson decided to take up singing, which was by then, you know, she wasn't well. it was like in may. and rita was performing -- >> married to tom hanks, yeah. >> she said let's all gather afterwards in a chinese restaurant. that was the last time i saw her. and soon after that, she was taken to hospital and basically she never left. and that incredible decision to, like, keep it from her friends for six years that she had leukemia. it was only nick and her sisters and sons who knew the full extent of what she was going through. because she didn't want it to color the life she was living and the interactions with friends and how everybody related to her. it's an amazing decision. i can't imagine taking it. but it was again part of who she was. >> she also was a -- she -- she was very -- she changed the way people thought about women and the way women could write. years ago, she was part of the whole feminist movement. she wrote for "esquire" and she said at the beginning, it had nothing to do with me. but she said, i knew it could make a difference and she did all kinds of essays about different things that women could do and couldn't do. she did them funny. she dependent lecture. that's what's so great about nora among other things. she said what we all felt or wanted to say, but she said it tongue and cheek or straight out. and funny. so we could accept it. >> barbara, what were your lasting memories be of nora as your friend? >> i think of nora now after front page of the new york times announcing her death and a whole page inside. and what you said piers of the outpouring of friends. and she would say enough already. so many memories. but mostly of the friendship and also of nick. and the two sons. you know, they have to go on without her. and so do we. and fortunately we have the most wonderful, funny, happy memories, don't we? >> for me, it's the way she literally glittered. and there's this joy about her. this sense of celebration, even though she also had that dry, sardonic side as barbara said. including the things she loved the most. i loved her line about if your children are teenagers, make sure you get a dog so somebody's happy when you get home. >> i think what we all felt yesterday and today, from my pal here, cherish each other. cherish each other, because this was such a shock and it all made us realize, if we hadn't before, how important friendship is. >> that is so true. the gratitude that she left behind. not taking anything for granted. and living every day as you said like it's your last day. >> ladies, i can't think of a better way to end. thank you very much. coming up, one of the dirtiest political scandals for years. i'll ask the woman at the center of it all, rielle hunter, if she's sorry. >> good morning. i'm here in new orleans in the ninth ward of new orleans to announce i'm a candidate for the presidency of the united states. >> it began in 2006 with so much promise for then senator john edwards. we know how it ended. his affair with rielle hunter ruined his career, his marriage and left his life in a shamble. rielle edwards wrote a book "what really happened." how are you? you're shaking your head already. what are you shaking your head for? >> i've had an interesting few days. >> you've been beaten up, mainly by women who have taken against stuff in the book. i guess, taken against you and trying to paint you as the scarlet woman in all this. really to blame. how do you feel about that? >> i feel that is it is an unfair judgment and usually made from assumptions and from people who haven't read the book. >> the chapters in the book each have a quote at the start. an interesting way of doing it. they tell a little story of their own. introduction has fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are. do we have the wrong idea about who you are? and if so, what is is the real rielle hunter? >> i believe most people have the wrong idea about me, y e. >> what do you think your public perception is right now? >> destroyer, villain, evil, barber. all of that. >> and how much of that is fair and how much of it is unfair? >> i think all of it is unfair. >> you take no responsibility for any of it? >> for the public perception? >> well, the perception is based on a series of assumptions that you broke up john edwards' you ruined his political career and left his life in a bit of a shambles. that's why people have the visceral view of you that they do. if that isn't fair or accurate -- >> i didn't do that, john edwards did that. >> all of it? >> he is responsible for his career and his marriage. well, he's 50% responsible for his marriage. elizabeth was 50% responsible for it as well. >> what are you responsible for? >> i'm responsible for my part in that, being the third party. >> knowing what you know now about how this all played out, when you had that first encounter with him, would you do something different? >> absolutely. >> would you? >> i would. i mean, the whole thing would be different. the hardest thing about that is because i have quinn. it's hard to have any regrets at all going down that road because i ended up with quinn. any parent knows that, any parent who has a child, it's hard to regret a relationship because it produced your child. >> you' broken up, you've announced this week, with john. do you think it's irreparable, do you think this is it no uh? >> i have no idea. i really don't. we have such a great relationship in communicating and a lot of love for each other. so it wouldn't surprise me if we were able to work things out, and it wouldn't surprise -- whatever happens between us, we will continue being loving, great parents. >> there's a lot of conjecture about why you split up. what is the truth? >> it felt like the right thing at the time. that's the truth. we're in very different places right this second. >> the media has been running riot with the theory that john's oldest child kate, who is i think 30, in her 30s, has taken against you and blames you for the breakup of her parents' marriage and that is the big problem. there's another theory, and you feel free to confirm or deny this that it's more to do with the fact in the book you revealed a number of affairs that her father had that was so it just came to a head. everything came to a head with the -- and the media scrutiny and bashing is very hot right now, obviously. >> are you surprised? >> what surprises me most is how mean people are and how much they judge based on things that they don't know anything about. that always surprises me. >> what is the biggest misconception about you? >> about me? >> yeah. >> that i'm an evil person, a destroyer. >> how would you characterize what happened at its essence between you and john if it wasn't the destruction of his marriage and his political career and so on. how do you characterize it? >> from that destruction, from the loss of everything came a great gift of growth for him. it's changed him. incredibly. and came the great gift of our child. >> if you think it wasn't for his other children who have strong feelings, particularly his oldest daughter who is a fully fledged adult right now who can make her own decisions. if it weren't for that and their strong emotions about this, you would still be together? >> i have no idea. >> does your gut feeling tell you that? >> i have no idea. you could say if this or if that all day long -- >> people have said it's the book. it's the book that's caused you to break up. >> how can you say one event breaks up a relationship? >> because you've broken up since the book came out. a lot of people do simple math. two plus two equals four. did he read the book? >> in my life, things happen all at once. that happens to be a pattern in my life. >> did he read the book before? >> before what? >> before publication? >> not before publication. >> did you offer it to him? >> many times. >> why did he say no? >> you would have to ask him that. >> why did he tell you? >> he didn't want to. >> why? >> he lived it. he didn't want to read it. >> did he try to stop you from writing it? >> not at all. >> when did he read it? >> you should talk to him about this. >> would love to. >> maybe you will one day. >> at the moment i'm talking to you. >> i don't want to talk about him. >> he has read the book? >> i don't want to talk about that. >> it's not wrong. it's called "what really happened -- john edwards, our daughter and me." you saying i don't want to talk about that, john edwards, is a bit ridiculous since he's on the title of the book. when you behave like this people get irritated. come on. you wrote a book called "what really happened." >> i'm sorry, piers. you have to have boundaries in your life. the media is not entitled to everything in your life. everything that you -- they just come at you as if they're entitled to everything. you're not. >> there's very little about your life i haven't read in this book. every spit and cough. >> that's not true. it starts on the day i met john edwards in this book. i lived 43 years before i met john edwards. >> let's talk about this night. let's just tee it up. you want me to respect your privacy. i let go of my resistance and he wanted him to lead. and lead he did. it was the most extraordinary night of my life. >> this is a great speech. >> can you read it? >> yes, i can read it. >> you can? >> yes. that is a great speech. >> i'm so gle he was so flirty. then. he's changed a lot. he's not like that now. >> you're talking in graphic. you don't want to talk about john. >> i want to talk about what's in the book. you're talking to me about john today. >> i'm going to talk about the first time you went to bed with him. the detail of the bed hopping. >> why does the media make everyt and, you know, you use phrases about her, venomous, crazy, witch on wheels. >> i did not s the book on what john edwards told you. >> when you're in a relationship with a married man, that's how you're going to receive information about their marriage. >> do you believe everything he told you is right? given that's how you based your >> i look at it and it makes me smile. >> why do you smile? >> because it was fun. funny. i like i want. he was very happy. i got a lot of heat for that, you know, because he was so flirty. and as a filmmaker, i kept that in because he was flirty with everyone back then. it wasn't just me. it was very true to who he was then. he's changed a lot. he's not like that now. >> you're talking in graphic. you don't want to talk about john. >> i want to talk about what's in the book. you're talking to me about john today. >> i'm going to talk about the first time you went to bed with him. the detail of the bed hopping. >> why does the media make everything so salacious. >> because you put salacious material in your book. >> it is not salacious the way it is told. >> some of it is. >> it is not. your spin on it is salacious. >> i just read before the break what you write about this incredible night of your life. you said it was the best sex of your life. >> i did not say that. >> was it or wasn't it? >> walked right into that one, didn't i? >> you made no secret of it being the best sex of your life. >> do you really think men cheat for bad sex? do they? >> i never thought of it like that. some must do. some must be bitterly disappointed. >> perhaps. >> the book, whether you like it or not, the problem is, you have opened yourself a lot in the book i think to criticisms. there's no doubt about that. >> i have. >> and the main criticism has come from the way you describe elizabeth. and, you know, you use phrases about her, venomous, crazy, witch on wheels. >> i did not say witch on wheels. that's not about elizabeth. these things are taken out of context. when you take the tidbit about the extraordinary night and you take it out of context -- >> who was the witch on wheels? >> i was talking about passive aggressive relationships, when a man doesn't stand up -- in general, relationships in general, when the man doesn't stand up, the woman is often seen as a witch on wheels, often vilified, which incidentally is exactly what has happened to me. >> but you were obviously referring to elizabeth, right? >> no. i'm talking about a relationship. >> who else did he have in his life that could have possibly seen as a witch on wheels. >> i'm seen as a witch on wheels. >> you are now, yeah. >> yeah. i'm talking about a relationship? general. >> a lot of flak you're getting is because of these descriptive phrases you've used in connection about elizabeth. do you regret now putting this stuff the way the media has answered to it. do you accept when someone is dead and can't answer back, it looks graceless. >> it looks graceless, y e. it was never my intention to bash elizabeth edwards. my intention was to tell the truth of the story for the six years that i saw it through my eyes. i saw elizabeth through the eyes of john edwards. he would tell me things. other people would tell me things. i only met elizabeth once. >> so you based