Enquirer: John Edwards Engaged to Rielle Hunter

(Feb. 10) -- According to the National Enquirer, former Sen. John Edwards has proposed to Rielle Hunter, with whom he recently admitted fathering a child.

Citing anonymous sources, the paper claims that Edwards asked Hunter to marry him on the same day he told her that he would make an announcement confirming his paternity of Hunter's child.

"John has proposed to Rielle, and she said yes," the source is said to have told the Enquirer.

Former senator and presidential candidate John Edwards

Robyn Beck, AFP / Getty Images

The National Enquirer claims that John Edwards is engaged to marry Rielle Hunter, a former campaign staffer with whom he fathered a baby while married to his wife Elizabeth.

Contacted by CNN, a spokeswoman for Edwards denied that the story had any merit, calling it "absolutely untrue."

In January, in the wake of revelations about the affair with Hunter, one of Edwards' former campaign workers, John and Elizabeth Edwards formally separated after 32 years of marriage.

If confirmed, the reported union between Hunter and Edwards would cap one of the most sordid episodes in American politics, in which political fortunes and the credibility of a tabloid newspaper were transformed.

It was the National Enquirer, after all, that doggedly pursued the rumors of infidelity between Edwards and Hunter when more established news organizations shied away from the story.

As yet, however, the claim that Edwards and Hunter are engaged is based on the gossip of two unnamed sources. Similarly, the National Enquirer relied on anonymous sources when it claimed that John Edwards recently beat Elizabeth, effectively ending their relationship.

Some of the Enquirer's allegations would seem less than credulous were it not for the fact that the paper had been right about so many past ones concerning the Edwards saga, while Mr. Edwards' denials had often shown to be false.

The Enquirer's story on the engagement between Edwards and Hunter comes on the same day that Andrew Young, a former Edwards staffer, turned over an alleged sex tape of the couple to a North Carolina court.

Young wrote about finding the tape in his recently released book "The Politician," which paints an unflattering picture of both John and Elizabeth Edwards.

Edwards, meanwhile, remains under federal investigation for using campaign funds to cover up his affair with Hunter.