Dear God: I know it’s kinda old school, but You might wanna think about bringing back that whole ‘struck by lightning’ thing…
So I watched the Rielle Hunter interview on Oprah.
(Or most of it, anyway– Charlotte and I were at Home Depot buying YET MORE PLANTS for the deck. I might need an intervention, folks. Seriously, I just keep walking by these exotic flowers and shrubs I’ve never seen before and going, “Oh, why not– I’ll take one!” So now I have a dwarf Meyer lemon tree. And something kind of purple and tropical looking that I can’t pronounce that I just repotted. And a hibiscus with a braided trunk and a big honkin’ hydrangea and possibly a bougainvillia. Somebody stop me.)
Anyway, so Rielle Hunter is the woman who had the affair with John Edwards, the presidential candidate from North Carolina who is married to Elizabeth Edwards who is dying of cancer. These days you need a scorecard to keep up with all of the women coming out of the woodwork and into the bright lights of the national media who have had affairs with famous married men– between Tiger Woods and the whole Jesse James/ Sandra Bullock scandal, it’s hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on a TV set and NOT hear about cheating spouses. But the Rielle Hunter thing took it to a whole ‘nother level, mostly because of the bizarre New Age-y, psychobabble spin she attempted to put on her particular little drama. With a completely straight face, she sat across from Oprah (in the house that John Edwards is paying for, btw) and told her that the reason John Edwards started having a secret affair with her was because he wanted to “live a life of truth.” Wait, WHAT? And as for her own personal responsibility in sleeping with a married man and having his baby while he was still married to the dying wife AND was lying his dang head off on national television to the entire American public? Well, she just “followed her heart” which she firmly believes “was the right thing to do.” After all, she was just trying to “help Johnny find his authentic self.”
Honest to God, I have never heard such a load of self-serving, delusional crap in my entire life! It was narcissism on parade. Apparently in Rielle Hunter’s mind it’s ok to screw around if it’s “part of your spiritual path to your higher self.” And it’s ok for the ‘man she loves’ to publicly deny paternity of her child while simultaneously renewing his marriage vows with the wife he’s betraying, because after all, Rielle “trusts him completely and knows him like the back of my hand.” Of course this is from the woman who describes herself as “true to who I am” and “living my life with integrity.” It would have been funny if the whole thing wasn’t so tragic for everyone concerned.
I think what got to me more than anything was the complete lack of remorse and refusal to accept any moral responsibility for how her sleazy deceitful actions forever changed the lives of so many people– not the least of which is her own child, not to mention John Edwards’ other children (you know, the legitimate ones.) Those children, who are in the process of losing their mother, are now able to watch Rielle on TV dreamily talking about how she picked up, er, met John for the first time in a hotel bar, or they can read the headlines blaring from the tabloids about the legal wrangling over their dad’s sex tape. One of the biggest hit-my-head-on-the-desk moments for me was when Oprah asked Rielle if she thinks she hurt Elizabeth Edwards by having an affair with her husband and she actually had the balls to say, “I don’t know. You’d have to ask her.” Uh, yeah Rielle. I’m thinking we can probably figure that one out without having to ask Elizabeth.
I think that’s the point at which I started yelling at the television.
*sigh*
(Anybody else see this? Got any opinions?)