The former mistress of John Edwards said in an online column Tuesday that she was sorry for all of the trouble caused by her affair with the two-time Democratic presidential candidate.
Writing in the Huffington Post, Rielle Hunter said that, after years of feeling victimized by the media and the public, she now recognizes that she "behaved badly."
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"Back in 2006, I did not think about the scope of my actions, how my falling in love with John Edwards, and acting on that love, could hurt so many people," she wrote. "Unfortunately, I was not thinking about anyone but myself. I was selfish."
Hunter goes through a litany of mea culpas to apologize to Edwards' late wife, Elizabeth, their family and friends and all of Edwards' campaign supporters. She said she only compounded the problems she caused by writing a book about the affair and the daughter she and Edwards have together.
The column appeared on the same day an annotated version of her book went on sale. The updated version includes notations on all of her regrets and mistakes, she said.
"Owning your past mistakes is no day at the beach, but I do believe it is an important endeavor to undertake," she wrote.
Edwards, a former U.S. senator from North Carolina, was cleared last year of campaign finance charges related to his affair. Federal prosecutors accused him of using campaign cash to hide a pregnant Hunter from the media, but a jury acquitted him on one charge, and five other charges were dismissed after jurors couldn't reach a verdict.