CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Rielle Hunter said she and "Johnny" Edwards "love each other very much" and criticizes media portrayals of her as untrue in an interview in GQ magazine released Monday. Ms. Hunter gave birth to a girl fathered by Mr. Edwards.

GQ reportedly interviewed Ms. Hunter at the Charlotte, N.C., home she said she's renting for $1,500 a month near Freedom Park. In the interview, Ms. Hunter said she decided to talk after Mr. Edwards admitted paternity in January. Daughter Frances Quinn is now 2.

"I feel comfortable talking now, because Johnny went public and made a statement admitting paternity," she said. "I didn't feel like I could ever speak until he did that. Because had I spoken, I would have emasculated him. And I could not emasculate him. Also, it is not my desire to teach my daughter that when Mommy's upset with Daddy, you take matters into your own hands and fix Daddy's mistakes."

She also said she talked to Mr. Edwards in 2008 after he denied fathering her child in a TV interview.

"And I said, 'Ouch, that hurt.' And he said, 'I'm sorry.' And 'it doesn't mean anything.' And it didn't. I know he loves me. I have never had any doubt at all about that. We love each other very much. And that hasn't changed, and I believe that will be till death do us part. The love doesn't go away. It's unconditional. It's unconditional on my part, but our connection is profound. There's a lot of passion there."

She said that she and Mr. Edwards have been in love from February 2006 until now.

Ms. Hunter told GQ magazine that she and Mr. Edwards first met on a street corner in New York City and says her first words to him were, "You're so hot." And she said they had sex that night in his New York hotel room.

After their first night, in the Regency hotel in Manhattan in February 2006, Ms. Hunter said Mr. Edwards told her, "Falling in love with you could really [expletive] up my plans for becoming president."

John and Elizabeth Edwards are now separated.

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