>> according to the collier county sheriff's office, the tips are still rolling in, but nothing concrete enough to make an arrest. it is, of course, a very active investigation. >> reporter: that's it for tonight's show. i'm randi kaye. >> i'm drew griffin. thanks for joining us. a rock icon with a message for america. melissa ethridge passionate about her music. and her opinions. >> i think it has done us more harm believing in the huge differences between left and right, democrat and republican. >> the sex, cash, and politics the scandal that went to global headlines that ended a career and destroyed a marriage. >> do you think men cheat for bad sex? do they? >> the most hated women in america.

the most important question of all. is she sorry. this is piers morgan tonight. >> you hear melissa ethridge once and you never forget her. no one can sing the songs quite like she does. she an oscar winner and known for being outspoken on issues close to her heart. >> nice to be here. >> you are a fiery, emotional soulful character, aren't you? >> i am trying to live this interesting live that we all have in front of us, making choices. >> when you look at your professional and personal life, how do you feel about where you are right now? >> i think at this point, i am 51 now and i realized it's just a journey. it's all about how you are doing

it. >> that are is so true. you will never arrive, will you? this train never gets to a station. >> for does not. there is no there there. for myself who achieved the markers that you think the oscar and each time i go there is no there here. that's nice and great, but it's about how am i doing and how is this journey? >> what is the best pit stop on your train and what is the moment if i can relive it for you? all the women in your life? >> oh, no. >> on stage with bruce springsteen. unplugged. ntv. they said do you want a duet. i always wanted to sing with bruce. who doesn't?

he said yes. he was one of those, if i could stop time right now. >> that are moment. that is the door open. outcomes the boss. >> it's him and i singing thunder road. yeah. wow. i wanted it to stop, but i have the video. >> it was as good as you hoped? >> yes. looking back on it. in the moment, moments are funny. you have to learn to love when you are going through it. >> i want to play a clip from come to my window about love and romance. >> ♪ come to my window ♪ ♪ crawl inside wait by the light of the moon ♪ ♪ come to my window

♪ i'll be home soon >> that to me is american music at its best. the kind of music you want to get your chevy, get on the pacific coast highway and get the shades on and ramp up the ethridge. >> yes. i write songs for people who drive in cars. i really do. >> you are right to do that. most people spend a lot of time in cars listening to music and wanting to feel something. >> i want them to get from point a to point b. >> i am leaving to the end. i look at them in the eye and say come on, how many times have you been properly in love. you sing about love and heart break and agony and torment. come on, you great love writer singer you. how many times have you been

properly in love? >> how many times have i thought i was in love or properly in love? like there is anything proper about being in love. i am for the first time properly in love. i am now in love with myself. that is the only way i can be properly in love with someone. >> before you felt you have been in love, but you haven't been able to give that person the whole you? >> myself was -- i felt they will fill this up. if i have that person, i can fill this up. you can't. we are living two different realities. to think that adding someone to you will make you whole, you are in for a drop. now that i understand it's about loving myself that i can be in a good relationship is to love

myself and work on myself and be the best me for my children and my partner, that's being in love. then you can offer love to someone else. >> let's turn to politics. you have been very vocal about this. it has been a big year for the gay and lesbian community in america. are you happy with the speed of the advances and the rights that have been bestowed down or are you thinking you know what, a lost talk and not enough action? >> having been on the journey of getting towards gay and lesbian rights and understanding the diversity in america, 20 years ago started that. i was hoping in years it would be we don't feel comfortable about that. this is deep-seeded fear and religion and all kinds of things. this change of paradigm with

love and relationship and society takes time. are we moving in that direction? absolutely. >> you grew up in kansas. i know when i grew up, gay was a bad word. lezzie, faggot, dike. there were so many thens. the black and it is poor. them. the immigrants. them. now the them is me. it was a poignant way of putting it. do you feel the them that is you and those that are them like you are in a much better position now that you have a president that has gone on television and say i support. >> absolutely. i do think that was a big tipping point in this movement. in the movement towards equality and the recognition of diversity. it's very important to be able to say the president said he is for it. actually having it be enacted at

a federal level is a ways off. >> when you go back to kansas, is it better there in reality? is there more tolerance? >> i don't like the word tolerance. >> what's the right word. >> it sounds like i'm doing something you have to tolerate. diversity and recognizing that there is no us and them. you can divide us up any way between anything sexually and color and religion. we are all different. >> you feel it's getting better? >> yes. especially kansas. i came from the kansas in the 60s which was the middle of the civil rights movement. kansas was the neutral state where you are not south or north. they top the do unto others and they understand. >> facing the election, you performed at the democratic convention in 2008.

barack obama is facing one hell of a fight many people assume. what do you think of his record in the last four years and what do you think of the potential prospect of a mitt romney presidency? >> okay. my politics have evolved. from very similar to the us and them we are talking about. i think it has done us more harm believing in the huge differences between left and right, democrat and republican in that there definitely is differences socially. now i'm a little skeptical having seen the last 20 years of democrat and republican. they are still moving the same multinational corporation agenda forward. so i am starting to go wait a minute, i think there needs to be an alternative. i am getting really progressive here whether democrat or republican. socially of course i would love to see the democratic party

control the issues that are moving forward. physically i think it's the same thing. >> it's quite depressing. >> i know. >> do you feel depressed when you say that? >> again it feels like i feel what a lot of people are feeling. i'm tired of this us and them. this republicans and democrats and the horrible things. it only makes us -- when we all really want the same thing. we want lower taxes and we want a better system and better schools and strong businesses. to divide ourselves like this is hurting us. we have got to learn to get together or we are sunk. >> i could not agree more. let's take a break and talk about music. i have been handed this exotic thing. and also i top the talk to you about your battle with cancer and your life. very profound. it's amazing that period had on your life. ♪

♪

>> singing from melissa ethridge's new album. me about this album. i am reading a direct quote. i believed in myself more in this album than i have before. 14,000. is that linked to the base of you learned to love yourself. >> worry my 12th album. i have a ton of them. >> a ton of albums. >> my fans would write to you if i didn't say that. yes, this came from a place of oh, i had gone to england where i hadn't been in 20 years in some of these places. they were listening and loving my music. why am i getting down on myself and believe in myself the way my

fan dos. i played all the guitars and had a blast and made songs i wanted to play and didn't think about anybody else. >> you famously battled breast cancer and came through. your father died of cancer. you said it was the best thing that ever happened to me. why did you feel that? >> i was being a good grown up. i was working very hard. i was trying to be thin. i was eating power bars every day and drinking lattes. >> disgusting. seriously. >> it's not food. it's not. by my body breaking down and forcing me to be still, that was the biggest thing, to be still. i had never been still, working since i was 12. be still and let the world pass me by and give me time to contemplate my life and my

spirit and my health. what it is this cancer? getting back up after the treatment saying oh, i'm going to walk now. remembering what it was like. and start my life in a balanced health. everything. everything you eat and feel. >> you probably supported the proposition 19 in favor of medical marijuana. >> you want your children to know it's a choice you make as a responsible adult. if got forbid you were struck again by cancer, would you take marijuana? >> oh, yes, absolutely. i am a card holding medicinal marijuana registered person in california and i use it as medicine to help the gastro intestinal issues i have after chemotherapy. at the time i was going through it, i used it as medicine to

help me sleep and relieve pain. there not just cannibis, but many plant medicines that are available to us that have a lot of stigma around them that i hope in the future our medical community can look at. i would absolutely go to those alternatives before i went back to the rest. >> currently on talk, hitting 27 cities in the next three months, you are talking about available september 4th, what is next in the empire building of melissa ethridge. where do you want to be in five years? >> still be creating. i would love to create more for stage. >> one great ambition. >> i do have an ambition for a broadway show and am working on one. a couple of songs come from the project. i would love to write for more film. i love creating.

i am touring. i love what i do. i want to keep doing it. >> the most important thing. keep writing music. it has been a real pleasure. ♪

good morning. i'm here in new orleans to name the ninth ward of new orleans to announce i am a candidate for the presidency of the united states. >> for began in 2006 with so much promise for then senator john edwards and we know how it ended. the affair with rielle hunter ruined his marriage and left his live n shambles. she told the story about what really happened and her first cable interview. you are shaking your head already. >> i had an interesting few days. >> you have been beaten up mainly by a lot of women who taken against some of the stuff in the book. tried to paint you as the

scarlet woman in this and the 1 to blame. >> how do you feel about that? >> i feel it is unfair judgment. usually made from assumptions and from people who haven't read the back. >> the chapter his a quote at the start. that's a way of doing it. they tell the story of their own. the introduction, for example, has fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are. do we have the wrong idea about who you are. what is the real rielle hunter? >> i believe most people have the wrong idea about me, yes. >> what are do you think your public perception is right now? >> destroyer, villain, evil, barber. >> how much of that is fair and unfair? >> i think all of it is unfair. >> you take no responsibility for any of it?

>> for the public perception. >> the perception is based on a series of assumptions that you broke up john edwards's marriage and ruined his career and left his in a bit of a shambles. that's why people have the visceral view of you they do. >> i didn't do that. john edwards did that. >> all of it? >> he is responsible for his career and his marriage. he is 50% responsible for his marriage. elizabeth was 50% responsible as well. >> what are you responsible for? >> i am 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. the whole thing would be different. the hardest thing about that is that because i have quinn, it's

hard to have any regrets going down that road. i ended up with quinn. any parent knows that. any parent who has a child, it's hard to regret the relationship because it produced your child. >> you have broken up with john. do you think it's irrepairable to think this is it? >> we have a great relationship in communicating and a lot of love for each other. it wouldn't surprise me if we were able to work things out or -- whatever happens between us, we will continue being loving and great parents. >> there is 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 are in very different places right this second.

>> the media with the theory that john's oldest child, cate has taken against you and blames you for the break up of her parents's marriage and that is the problem. another theory and you feel free to confirm or deny this, it's more to do with the fact that in the book you revealed a number of other affairs with her father that was news to her and the other kids. is that what caused the real problem? what is the truth? >> the truth is we had problems for a very long time. we haven't addressed them because we put the children first. so it came to a head. everything came to a head with an immediate scrutiny and bashing. it's hot right now obviously. you surprised? >> what surprises me most is how

mean people are and how much they judge based on things they don't know anything about. that always surprises me. >> what are 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 political career, 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. >> do you think if it wasn't for his other children who had such strong feelings, particularly his oldest daughter who is obviously a fully fledged adult,

do you think if it wasn't for that and their strong emotions about this, you would still be? >> i have no idea. >> your gut feeling? >> can you say if that this and if that all day. >> people have said it's because of the book. it's the book. >> how can you say one event breaks up a relationship? >> you broke up when the book came out. a lot of people would quite easily do simple math. two plus two equals four. did he read the book? >> in my life, things happen all at once. it 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? >> many times. >> why did he say no? >> you have to ask him. >> what did he tell you? >> he didn't to.

he lived it. he didn't want to read it. >> did he try to stoup from writeing it? >> not at all. >> when did he read it? >> you should talk to him about this. >> i would love to. >> maybe you will. >> but 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. >> i don't want to talk about your book? >> yes, but -- >> unless i'm wrong. it's called what really happened. our daughter and me. rielle hunter. you are saying i don't want to talk about that being john edwards is ridiculous being that he's on the title of the book. what really happened? >> those are things you should ask him. >> when you behave like this, people get irritated. they are like come on. you have written a book called what really happened. can you not answer straight questions? >> you have to have boundaries in your life. the media is not entitled to

everything in your life. they come at you as if you are entitled to everything. >> very little about your life i haven't read. >> that's not true. it starts on the day i met john edwards. i have lived 43 years before i met john edwards. >> we will talk about this night. obviously you want to in the book, somewhere in the midst of our talk for how long his marriage was, i let go of my resistance to him and he led me to the most extraordinary night of my life. let's find out what that was all about, after the break. [ male announcer ] now you can swipe... scroll... tap... pinch...

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>> it's a great speech.

>> can you read it? >> yes, i can read it? >> you can? >> yes. that is say great speech. >> i'm so glad you like it. >> i like it. why don't you hear me give it live. >> the campaign plane with john edwards. rielle hunter is here to talk about their affair. you look sweet and innocent and happy there. do you look at those clips and think if only it stayed like that before anyone knew. >> i don't have those thoughts, but i look at it and it makes me smile. >> why were you smiling some. >> it was fun. funny. he was very happy. i got a lot of heat for that because he was so flirty. as a filmmaker kept that in because he was flirty with everyone back then. it wasn't just me. it was true to who he was then. he is not like that now.

>> you talk about it in graphic detail. >> i want to talk about what's in the book. you are asking me about john today. it's very painful. >> i'm going back to the time where you first go to bed with him. >> not graphic detail. >> i don't tell the detail of the bed hopping. you do. >> then why does the media make everything soy is lashs? >> you make it like that. you put it in your book. >> it's the way it's told. it's your spin on it. >> i am not spinning it. i read it before the break. you said it was the best sex you ever had. >> i did not say that. >> it was or wasn't it? >> walked right into that, didn't i? >> you made no secret of it? >> you think men cheat for bad sex? >> i never thought about that.

some must be and be bitterly disappointed. >> perhaps. >> the book, whether you like it or not, the problem is you opened yourself up a lot in the book i think to criticism. there is no doubt about it. >> i have. >> the main criticisms come from the way you describe elizabeth. you use phrases about her. venomous, crazy, witch on wheels. >> i did not say witch on wheels. that was not about elizabeth. this was taken out of context. you read the story and you take the tidbit about the 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 a man doesn't stand up, the woman is often seen as a witch on wheels, often vilified. that is exactly what happened to

me. >> you were referring to elizabeth? >> no. i am talk about a relationship. >> who are else did he have on n his that was the witch on wheels? >> i am seen that way. that's what happens in a dynamic. i am talking about a relationship in general. >> a lot of the flack is because of the descriptive phrases you used in connection or in a round about way about elizabeth. do you regret given the way the media latched on to it. do you think it looks graceless? >> i accept it looks graceless, yes. my intention is not to bash elizabeth edwards. my intention was to tell the story for the years that i saw it through my eyes. i saw elizabeth through the eyes of john ed wars and he told me things. other people told me things. i only met elizabeth once. >> you based everything in the

book that you say about her on what what john told you. >> when you are in a relationship with a married man, that's how you receive the information about his marriage. >> do you believe everything he told you was right? >> do i believe everything he told? >> that's how you based your opinion of elizabeth. >> i don't know the answer to that. >> the reason was in the book, he tells you multiple lies. turns out you made the whole thing up. >> i don't know the answer to that. >> i don't know if you can trust him? >> i don't know if i trust him about everything he said. i don't know. >> if it's possible and from that answer it clearly is, that he exaggerated about how bad elizabeth was to please you. no woman wants to hear i'm madly in love with my wife and that's why i'm with you. most people say my wife is not great and that's why i'm with

you. if you exaggerated and he spun a line to you about how bad she was, you must be regretful. aren't you? about your impress of him. >> am i regretful of my impression of her? you sorry for what you did for her? >> i am absolutely sorry for my part in the relationship. having an affair and any pain it caused anyone including elizabeth. >> if she were still alive, would you say i'm sorry. >> in my book, i talk about how i regret not being able to speak to elizabeth. >> that's removed for saying i'm sorry for what i did to you. >> i would say that to her. >> the fact that she was dying of cancer made this all ten times worse. made the public perception of john and therefore you, ten

times worse. you were in the middle of this mail storm of attention and now there is a baby involved. there was this extraordinary cover up that was launched with his aide and he was going to pretend to be the father and all of rest of it. what a tangled web we weave when at first we do deceive. it's a classic of its time. going back to that moment, what would you have done differently? >> i never would have gone along with that. >> why did you? >> out of fear. i was afraid that my daughter wouldn't have a relationship with him. that's the only thing i can come up with. it was hard to get there. once i said yes, it was stupid. really. >> i get the feeling for your worst moment for you came when he denied that it was even remotely possible that the baby could be his. let's watch a clip.

>> a report has been published that the baby of miss hunter is your baby. true? >> not true. not true. that was super market tabloids. that is absolutely not true. >> a point blank lie from a guy who wanted to be president. pretty extraordinary. not unheard of, but still extraordinary. when you heard him and saw him do that. what went through your mind? >> i was devastated. i knew he was going to do it as well, but even knowing that he was going to do it did not prepare me for how it felt. >> how did he think he could get away with it. he is a bright guy and smart politician and many thought he had all the credentials to be president and it was this incredibly reckless gamble, not just the affair, but the baby

and the cover up and all of it. it was an exacerbation of the previous scandal. it got bigger and worse with every twist and turn. >> your question is? >> why did he think he could get away with it? >> i don't think he was in his right mind. >> once he got caught at the beverly hills hilton, he was very strange for about a month. because his double life had been exposed. it was difficult. he was all over the place. he was temporarily insane. it was strange. it's not the best time to invite a camera crew into your house and give an interview. >> it was also the infamous sex tape that you made. let's take a break and we will talk about that. you've been busy for a dead man. after you jumped ship in bangkok,

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done his announcement to run for president. it was the first time i had ever seen her. i didn't know that the video grapher was a female. i was completely in the dark. >> and naive? >> and naive. >> elizabeth edwards talking about the moment john confessed to cheating on her. that must feel weird watching that clip? >> yeah. it's sad. >> what goes through your mind? >> nothing went through my mind. i just felt sad. >> you began working as this video grapher on the campaign earlier from the documentary. you made a sex tape together. again, i come back to this extraordinary risk taking. what were you both thinking? apart from that, you weren't using birth control. how did you think this was going to end? sex tapes, no birth control?

>> how did i think it was going to end? >> how could it end in anything but a catastrophe for a guy who wants to be president. >> you asked two things there. >> let's talk about the sex tapes. >> that was a mistake. >> whose idea was it? >> what does it matter? >> out of curiosity. >> it doesn't matter. >> people tried to portray you as the evil person hooking you to john edwards and this was part of the plot. get the sex tape and get it leaked. turn yourself into the kim kardashian of politics. >> that's not true. we were in love and sleep-deprived and it was a mistake. >> whose idea was it not to use birth control? >> we were both adults. we didn't use birth control. >> why? >> we were in love. >> what are has that got to do

with it? the guy is going to be president or wants to be. it seems extraordinary. the details. what were you both thinking? >> we weren't. >> at all. >> clearly. >> you have been married before. >> i have been married before. >> when people say you don't understand marriage, what do you say? >> that i don't understand marriage? >> you are a marriage wrecker. >> i understand marriage very well. i was with my husband, we were married for nine years and together for 12. we did a lot of couples therapy. i know the dynamics that go on. >> why did that marriage end? >> mine? why did it end? it ended because we didn't work. we both realized it. i never cheated on my husband. i'm not a big believer in fidelity. i said it doesn't work. i need out. we need out. we need to talk about it.

>> there has to be a level of responsibility and self awareness. >> there is. i didn't wreck the marriage. he is responsible for that. i said yes. i am not married. i was not married when i said yes to him. i did not go there under that intention. i didn't go there for that. that's not why i went. >> you knew he was married. >> i did. that's not why i went to his hotel room. >> let's take a break. we will talk you to you about your future and your daughter and your biggest regret. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you've been years in the making. and there are many years ahead. join the millions of members who've chosen an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan

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. back now with rielle hunter. you have been a bit of a bust jokes for five or years and a bit of a national laughingstock, hated by people who don't know you. what is that like on a human level? >> it's hard. it's hard to have the wrath of america directed at you. especially and i really do want

to say that i am responsible for my part in this. i do take responsibility for my part. i'm not a home wrecker. >> here's the thing. i'm not entirely sure when you say that what you think you are responsible for. given that you think you had no responsibility for the affair starting, etc. what are you responsible for? >> i am responsible for the continuing on of the cover up in a big way. the continuation and the hurt and pain that came out of that. >> but you don't regret going to his hotel room? >> i don't regret loving him. >> that are came later. >> yeah. a couple days later. >> you don't regret the action of yours as a woman who knows he's a famous guy who is married, going to his hotel room for the night which precipitated

everything else. you don't regret it? >> i do regret having an affair with a married man. i do. it's an awful thing. i don't regret loving him because of quinn. >> why did do you this? what did you hope to gain? all you had been getting is more flack. >> there is so much distortion about the story. i feel it's unfair for my daughter and really all the kids to have to grow up under the umbrella of negativity and distortion. what happens though is there is all this judgment based upon things that are not true. that judgment actually affects the kids. they go to school and the kids at school, their parents have judgments and there is all this judgment made that john edwards is a demon and i'm a home wrecker and elizabeth was a saint. it's not true.

i think my daughter deserves the truth. >> given all the publicity the book attracted, would you have written it a different way? >> i think i would have edited a little differently. what happens when you give the media these juicy things to take out of context, people can't hear anymore. they get so wrapped up in the tsunami of negativity, they can't hear what you are saying. if you can find a way to communicate and if i can find a way that is more neutral so people can hear. >> if john's kids are watching and they might well be, his daughter in particular, what would you say to her? >> that i'm sorry for any pain they have gone through. >> genuinely? >> absolutely. >> now you have your own child.